Viscosity Estimation Utilizing Flow Velocity Field Measurements in a Rotating Magnetized Plasma

The importance of viscosity in determining plasma flow structures has been widely recognized. In laboratory plasmas, however, viscosity measurements have been seldom performed so far. In this paper we present and discuss an estimation method of effective plasma kinematic viscosity utilizing flow velocity field measurements. Imposing steady and axisymmetric conditions, we derive the expression for radial flow velocity from the azimuthal component of the ion fluid equation. The expression contains kinematic viscosity, vorticity of azimuthal rotation and its derivative, collision frequency, azimuthal flow velocity and ion cyclotron frequency. Therefore all quantities except the viscosity are given provided that the flow field can be measured. We applied this method to a rotating magnetized argon plasma produced by the Hyper-I device. The flow velocity field measurements were carried out using a directional Langmuir probe installed in a tilting motor drive unit. The inward ion flow in radial direction, which is not driven in collisionless inviscid plasmas, was clearly observed. As a result, we found the anomalous viscosity, the value of which is two orders of magnitude larger than the classical one.