1. The electromagnetic acceleration of gases has been the subject of a large number of studies over the past several decades. Theoreticall1-4) and experimenta 1(S-13) investigations of a wide variety of devices have been undertaken, the usual applications envisaged being high specific impulse thrusters or high enthalpy flow tunnels. Because of the large electrical power requirements necessary to perform laboratory experiments on a meaningful scale, most investigations have involved pulsed, and therefore unsteady, operating conditions, However the associated analyses have assumed steady or quasi-steady operating conditions and cannot therefore be expected to fully explain the complex phenomena occurring in even the simplest pulsed devices.
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