Analyses of Multiphysical Model of Electromagnetic and Fluid in Thermodynamic Equilibrium and Chemical Nonequilibrium State

Abstract

During the flight of a hypersonic vehicle, a plasma sheath will be produced around the vehicle due to the effect of the shock layer. Because the plasma sheath will absorb, reflect, and scatter electromagnetic waves, which causes the communication signal to be attenuated or even interrupted, forming a communication “blackout.” In this article, the plasma sheath is illuminated by a high-power microwave (HPM) when the hypersonic vehicle is in the state of thermodynamic equilibrium and chemical nonequilibrium. Thus, the parameters of the plasma sheath change because of absorbing the energy of the HPM and then affect the electromagnetic characteristics of the plasma sheath. Aiming at the interaction between the HPM and the plasma sheath, we propose a multiphysics coupling model of fluid field and electromagnetic field, which provides a way of thinking for the interaction of electromagnetic and fluid coupling. Furthermore, through this multiphysics coupling method, it is found that the HPM illuminates into the plasma sheath, the ability of low-frequency electromagnetic waves to pass through the plasma sheath will be improved within a specific time window, which provides a possibility to enhance the communication blackout problem. Since the primary purpose of this article is to reveal the multiphysics field method and its related phenomena, both theoretical derivations and numerical examples are only presented in the 2-D space.