Investigation on the effect of nonlinear processes on similarity law in high-pressure argon discharges

Journal Article · Tue Nov 21 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Physics of Plasmas

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5005112· OSTI ID:1540130

Fu, Yangyang  ^[1]; Parsey, Guy M.  ^[2]; Verboncoeur, John P. ^[1]; Christlieb, Andrew J. ^[3]

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1. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Dept. of Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering; Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
2. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
3. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Dept. of Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering; Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States). Dept. of Mathematics

In this paper, the effect of nonlinear processes (such as three-body collisions and stepwise ionizations) on the similarity law in high-pressure argon discharges has been studied by the use of the Kinetic Global Model framework. In the discharge model, the ground state argon atoms (Ar), electrons (e), atom ions (Ar⁺), molecular ions (Ar₂⁺), and fourteen argon excited levels Ar*(4s and 4p) are considered. The steady-state electron and ion densities are obtained with nonlinear processes included and excluded in the designed models, respectively. It is found that in similar gas gaps, keeping the product of gas pressure and linear dimension unchanged, with the nonlinear processes included, the normalized density relations deviate from the similarity relations gradually as the scale-up factor decreases. Without the nonlinear processes, the parameter relations are in good agreement with the similarity law predictions. Furthermore, the pressure and the dimension effects are also investigated separately with and without the nonlinear processes. It is shown that the gas pressure effect on the results is less obvious than the dimension effect. Without the nonlinear processes, the pressure and the dimension effects could be estimated from one to the other based on the similarity relations.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0001939
• OSTI ID: 1540130
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1420639
• Journal Information: Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 24, Issue 11; ISSN 1070-664X
• Publisher: American Institute of Physics (AIP)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English