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Electrostatic Diagnostics of High-Pressure Plasma

Considerable interest has been generated in the measurements of reentry plasma parameters because of the communication blackout produced by the plasma surrounding a reentry vehicle. An electrostatic probe is well suited for such diagnostics because of its simplicity, ruggedness, spatial resolution,...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hazelton,Robert C, Churchill,R J, Chan,P W
Format: Report
Language:English
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Summary:Considerable interest has been generated in the measurements of reentry plasma parameters because of the communication blackout produced by the plasma surrounding a reentry vehicle. An electrostatic probe is well suited for such diagnostics because of its simplicity, ruggedness, spatial resolution, and ease of interpretation of measurements. The present work is concerned with a plane electrostatic probe diagnosis of a flowing, argon jet plasma with an electron temperature ranging from about 6000 - 8000K and an electron density in the range (10 to the 13th power - 10 to the 15th power/cc). The present work also deals with the analysis of two possible theories to describe the operation of the probe: a free fall theory and a continuum theory. Analysis of the experimental results indicates that the continuum theory for a plane electrostatic probe as developed by Su and Kiel (1966) is valid in the plasma tested.