Ion kinetic simulations of the formation and propagation of a planar collisional shock wave in a plasma
- Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique-Energie et Materiaux, 1650 Montee Ste.Julie, CP 1020, Varennes, Quebec, J3X 1S2 (Canada)
- Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique-Centre d'Etudes de Limeil-Valenton, 94195 Villeneuve St. Georges CEDEX (France)
Ion kinetic simulations of the formation and propagation of planar shock waves in a hydrogen plasma have been performed at Mach numbers 2 and 5, and compared to fluid simulations. At Mach 5, the shock transition is far wider than expected on the basis of comparative fluid calculations. This enlargement is due to hot ions streaming from the hot plasma into the cold plasma and is found to be limited by the electron preheating layer, essentially because electron--ion collisions slow down these energetic ions very effectively in the cold upstream region. Double-humped ion velocity distributions formed in the transition region, which are particularly prominent during the shock formation, are found not to be unstable to any electrostatic mode, due to electron Landau damping. At Mach numbers of 2 and below, no such features are seen in velocity space, and there is very little difference between the profiles from the kinetic and fluid simulations.
- OSTI ID:
- 6021955
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Fluids B; (United States), Vol. 5:9; ISSN 0899-8221
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
SHOCK WAVES
PLASMA SIMULATION
COLD PLASMA
ELECTRON-ION COLLISIONS
HOT PLASMA
HYDROGEN
KINETIC EQUATIONS
MACH NUMBER
PLASMA HEATING
TRANSPORT
COLLISIONS
ELECTRON COLLISIONS
ELEMENTS
EQUATIONS
HEATING
ION COLLISIONS
NONMETALS
PLASMA
SIMULATION
VELOCITY
700350* - Plasma Production
Heating
Current Drive
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