Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (KHI) is a shear flow-driven instability that imposes important changes in the macroscopic dynamics of some space and laboratory magnetized plasmas, such as the solar corona and astrophysical jets. Earth’s magnetopause and Tokamak devices. Using two-dimensional resistive magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations, the effect of uniform resistivity on the amplification of magnetic energy during KHI with a uniform magnetic field is studied. Dimensionless resistivity value varies by four orders of magnitude, with the minimum value of . Irrespective of the resistivity value, the results indicate that, up to a specific time, amplification of magnetic energy, in particular in the linear and early nonlinear phases of KHI, happens by the flow’s work on the magnetic field. This work is mainly efficient on the boundaries of growing vortices of KHI, where, consequently, the magnetic field is amplified significantly. As the KHI proceeds into the fully nonlinear regime, magnetic energy dissipation via Ohmic heating balances the flow’s work, so the magnetic energy becomes saturated. We found that the sporadic magnetic reconnection initiated by KHI in the turbulent regime plays an important role in dissipating and converting magnetic energy within strong current sheets. We also show that increasing the plasma resistivity weakens the mechanism of generating magnetic energy. The amplification of the magnetic energy is completely suppressed in a highly collisional plasma.
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