Modeling of formation of carbon cluster groups in electric arc discharge plasma

Abstract

The problem of modeling complex resource-intensive processes of plasma synthesis of carbon nanostructures (CNS) on the basis of mathematical and numerical methods of solution, focused on the use of parallel and distributed computing for processing large amounts of data, allowing to investigate the relationship and characteristics of processes to obtain an effective, cost-effective method of synthesis of CNS (fullerenes, nanotubes), is an actual theoretical and practical problem. This article deals with the problem of mathematical modeling of motion and interaction of charged particles in a multicomponent plasma based on the Boltzmann equation for the synthesis of ONS by thermal sublimation of graphite. The derivation of the collision integral is presented allowing to perform a numerical solution of the Boltzmann - Maxwell equations system with respect to the arc synthesis of CNS. The high order of particles and the number of their interactions involved simultaneously in the process of synthesis of CNS requires significant costs of machine resources and time to perform numerical calculations on the constructed model. Application of the large particle method makes it possible to reduce the amount of computing and hardware requirements without affecting the accuracy of numerical calculations. The use of parallel computing technology on the CPU and GPU with the use of Nvidia CUDA technology allows you to organize all the General-purpose calculations for the developed model based on the graphics processor of the personal computer graphics card, without the use of supercomputers or computing clusters. The results of experimental studies and numerical calculations confirming the adequacy of the developed model are presented. Obtained quantitative characteristics of the total pairwise interactions between the carbon particles and interactions with the formation of clusters of carbon with various types of ties in the plasma of the interelectrode space which are the basis of the synthesized nanostructures. The formation of carbon clusters occurs in the entire interelectrode space of the plasma with different intensity and depends on the process parameters.