A non-equilibrium simulation of thermal constriction in a cascaded arc hydrogen plasma

The cascaded arc hydrogen plasma of Pilot-PSI is studied in a non-LTE model. We demonstrate that the effect of vibrationally excited molecules on the heavy-particle-assisted dissociation is crucial for obtaining thermal constriction. To the best of our knowledge, thermal constriction has not been ob...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Plasma sources science & technology 2014-04, Vol.23 (2), p.25003-12
Main Authors: Peerenboom, K S C, van Dijk, J, Goedheer, W J, Kroesen, G M W
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
cascaded arc
Computer simulation
Constrictions
dissociation
Electrical measurements
Excitation
hydrogen
Hydrogen plasma
Linearization
Mathematical models
non-local thermodynamic equilibrium
plasma simulations
Strategy
thermal constriction
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Summary:The cascaded arc hydrogen plasma of Pilot-PSI is studied in a non-LTE model. We demonstrate that the effect of vibrationally excited molecules on the heavy-particle-assisted dissociation is crucial for obtaining thermal constriction. To the best of our knowledge, thermal constriction has not been obtained before in a non-LTE simulation. Probably, realistic numerical studies of this type of plasma were hindered by numerical problems, preventing the non-LTE simulations to show characteristic physical mechanisms such as thermal constriction. In this paper we show that with the help of appropriate numerical strategies thermal constriction can be obtained in a non-LTE simulation. To this end, a new source term linearization technique is developed, which ensures physical solutions even near chemical equilibrium where the composition is dominated by chemical source terms. Results of the model are compared with experiments on Pilot-PSI and show good agreement with pressure and voltage measurements in the source.
ISSN:0963-0252
1361-6595
DOI:10.1088/0963-0252/23/2/025003