Pulsed volume discharge with preionization in two-dimensional gasdynamic flow

Abstract

The interaction between a pulsed volume discharge with preionization by ultraviolet radiation from plasma sheets and a gasdynamic flow with a known density distribution is studied experimentally. The complex quasi-two-dimensional flow that emerges after the diffraction of a plane shock wave by rectangular obstacles in the channel is experimentally studied and numerically simulated. The glow intensity fields for an unsteady gasdynamic flow are imaged for the first time when recording the plasma radiation from a pulsed discharge in the flow. Since the ionization duration is short (150–200 ns), the gas-flow structure does not change and the flow does not heat up in the glow time of the discharge plasma in the flow. Our images are compared with the reciprocal-density fields of the corresponding two-dimensional gas flow. The effects of gasdynamic structures on the discharge plasma redistribution in the flow are analyzed. The energy contribution is localized into low-density zones (vortices, rarefaction waves) and into regions of density jumps and significant density gradients. The discharge current from adjacent regions with low E/N is redistributed into these zones. Breakdown channels are formed along rarefaction waves, vortices, and discontinuity surfaces between high-electron-density regions.