Thermophysical properties of nitrogen plasmas under thermal equilibrium and non-equilibrium conditions

Journal Article · Tue Nov 15 00:00:00 EST 2011 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3657426· OSTI ID:22047090

Weizong, Wang ^[1]; Mingzhe, Rong ^[1]; Yan, J D; Spencer, Joseph W ^[2]; Murphy, A B ^[3]

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1. State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Equipment, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an Shaanxi 710049 (China)
2. Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics, University of Liverpool, Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L69 3GJ (United Kingdom)
3. CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, P.O. Box 218, Lindfield NSW 2070 (Australia)

Calculated thermophysical properties of nitrogen plasmas in and out of thermal equilibrium are presented. The cut-off of the partition functions due to the lowering of the ionization potential has been taken into account, together with the contributions from different core excited electronic states. The species composition and thermodynamic properties are determined numerically using the Newton-Raphson iterative method, taking into account the corrections due to Coulomb interactions. The transport properties including diffusion coefficient, viscosity, thermal conductivity, and electrical conductivity are calculated using the most recent collision interaction potentials by adopting Devoto's electron and heavy particle decoupling approach, expanded to the third-order approximation (second-order for viscosity) in the framework of Chapman-Enskog method. Results are presented in the pressure range of 0.1 atm-10 atm and in electron temperature range from 300 to 40 000 K, with the ratio of electron temperature to heavy-particle temperature varied from 1 to 20. Results are compared with those from previous works, and the influences of different definitions of the Debye length are discussed.

• OSTI ID: 22047090
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 18, Issue 11; Other Information: (c) 2011 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1070-664X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
APPROXIMATIONS
DEBYE LENGTH
DIFFUSION
ELECTRIC CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
ELECTRONS
ION TEMPERATURE
IONIZATION POTENTIAL
ITERATIVE METHODS
NITROGEN
PARTITION FUNCTIONS
PLASMA
PLASMA PRESSURE
POTENTIALS
THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY
THERMAL EQUILIBRIUM
THERMODYNAMICS
VISCOSITY