Electrical charge can be sustained in a highly conducting fluid

 

Magnetohydrodynamics of insulating spheres
J. W. Haverkort, T. W. J. Peeters

A widespread notion in the field of ‘ideal’ magnetohydrodynamics describing highly conducting fluids there can be no electrical charge accumulation. Any nonzero charge will quickly redistribute over a short enough time-scale to be irrelevant. One can however easily show that in the presence of a magnetic field Lorentz forces can act to sustain a finite charge density, see equation 3.  This charge and the associated electric field have a distinct influence on the current distribution and the resulting forces on non-conducting inclusions and bubbles in a conducting fluid as shown in the above picture and explained in the paper.

 

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