Disc Turbulence and Viscosity
Introduction Accretion discs are a bit like waterfalls. Potential energy gets converted into kinetic and finally into thermal energy. The waterfall with the largest mass flux in Europe is Dettifoss in the northeast corner of Iceland with M = 1:5 \Theta 10 5 kg=s. If Dettifoss were to be converted in...
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| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
1999
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.25.4527 http://www.nordita.dk/~brandenb/papers/iceland.ps.gz |
| Summary: | Introduction Accretion discs are a bit like waterfalls. Potential energy gets converted into kinetic and finally into thermal energy. The waterfall with the largest mass flux in Europe is Dettifoss in the northeast corner of Iceland with M = 1:5 \Theta 10 5 kg=s. If Dettifoss were to be converted into a power plant, and if its efficiency was close to one hundred per cent, it would produce the equivalent of a luminosity of L = 100 MW. This is comparable with the power generated by an ordinary power plant, but less than the power produced by a nuclear power plant, which produces typically around 1000 MW. One is tempted to work out the change in water temperature per unit time due to viscous heating as the accretion stream splashes to the bottom. Equating the change of internal energy, c v ffiT , with the potential energy difference suggests a temperature in |
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