A study of 3-dimensional plasma configurations using the two-fluid plasma model

Abstract

The two-fluid model consists of the complete Euler equations for the ion and electron fluids and Maxwell's equations for the electric and magnetic fields. Two-fluid effects become significant when the characteristic spatial scales are on the order of the ion skin depth and the characteristic time scales are on the order of the inverse ion cyclotron frequency. The ideal two-fluid plasma model is studied for applications of the following plasma configurations in three dimensions, the Z-pinch, the θ-pinch and the field reversed configuration (FRC). Perturbations are applied to a Z-pinch and a θ-pinch equilibrium and the evolution of the lower-hybrid drift instability is observed in 3-d. The FRC tilt instability is determined to be unstable according to magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) models but experimental observations indicate that the FRC is actually stable to the tilt mode. The tilt instability is studied for the FRC using the two-fluid model and comparisons are made to previous results obtained using MHD, Hall-MHD and hybrid models. Modeling global 3D phenomena using the two-fluid plasma model requires a time-advance method that is not limited to electron plasma oscillations or speed of light propagation. The time advance method will be described.