Abstract
Variable and potential plasma applications in aerospace engineering are exemplified by ion thrusters, flow control by plasma actuator, enhanced ignition and combustion stability. The operational environments span a range from the rarefied to continuum gasdynamic regimes; however, the ionization process in practical applications is mostly by electron impact. The fundamental ionization mechanisms by electron impact consist of electron secondary mission and the cascading process. In an alternating electric field, unsteady and random micro discharges or streamers are always presented; therefore the discharge physics imposes a formidable challenge for incisive understanding. Meanwhile, the ionized species constitute hundreds of metastable chemical species; under this circumstance the physics-based modeling for analyzing the inhomogeneous medium becomes necessary. A summary of the physics-based modeling for electron impact ionization from the Boltzmann distribution equation to the inelastic particle kinetics formulation is delineated.
Highlights
Plasma as a working medium in aerospace engineering applications has introduced an added physical dimension through electromagnetic effects [1]
The direct current discharge (DCD) adopted for aerospace engineering is usually operated in the voltage-current range where the power source supply can provide more than the minimum current Id [20]
Computational simulations for direct current discharge (DCD) and dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) that utilize the inelastic collision model for electron impact ionization are presented in the following
Summary
Plasma as a working medium in aerospace engineering applications has introduced an added physical dimension through electromagnetic effects [1]. Since the perpendicular electric force normal to the magnetic field, qE⊥ accelerates or decelerates the particle based on the polarity of charge carried, the radius of the curvature of the particle’s trajectory will change according to the normal electric field component. The curvature of the electron trajectory in a magnetic field is responsible for a transverse current, or the Hall current This electric current leads to a voltage difference across plasma due to interaction of charged particles’ motion with an external applied magnetic field that is transverse to both the electric and magnetic fields. In free space and without the presence of an externally applied electric field, the electron and ion pair in plasma is restrained within a separation distance by the Debye shielding length to each other by the electrostatic force. The interaction produces a wall of jet-like stream and is known as the electric wind for flow control [5,16]
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