Heat transfer to a particle exposed to a rarefied plasma with a great temperature gradient

Abstract

A kinetic-theory analysis is presented concerning the heat transfer from a rarefied plasma to a spherical particle for the extreme case of free-molecule regime and thin plasma sheath. A great temperature gradient is assumed to exist in the plasma, and thus a non-Maxwellian velocity distribution function is employed for each of the gas species. Analytical results show that the existence of a temperature gradient in the plasma causes a nonuniform distribution of the local heat flux density on the sphere surface, while the total heat flux to the whole particle is independent of the temperature gradient. The nonuniformity of the local heat flux distribution is small even for the case with a temperature gradient as great as10 6 K/m, but it may significantly enhance the thermophoretic force on an evaporating particle. Heat transfer is mainly caused by atoms at low gas temperatures with negligible ionization degree, while it can be attributed to ions and electrons at high plasma temperatures.