EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF SHOCK WAVE DYNAMICS IN MAGNETIZED PLASMAS

Technical Report · Tue Mar 17 04:00:00 EDT 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/949758· OSTI ID:949758

Podder, Nirmol K ^[1]

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1. Troy University, Troy, AL 36082

In this four-year project (including one-year extension), the project director and his research team built a shock-wave-plasma apparatus to study shock wave dynamics in glow discharge plasmas in nitrogen and argon at medium pressure (1–20 Torr), carried out various plasma and shock diagnostics and measurements that lead to increased understanding of the shock wave acceleration phenomena in plasmas. The measurements clearly show that in the steady-state dc glow discharge plasma, at fixed gas pressure the shock wave velocity increases, its amplitude decreases, and the shock wave disperses non-linearly as a function of the plasma current. In the pulsed discharge plasma, at fixed gas pressure the shock wave dispersion width and velocity increase as a function of the delay between the switch-on of the plasma and shock-launch. In the afterglow plasma, at fixed gas pressure the shock wave dispersion width and velocity decrease as a function of the delay between the plasma switch-off and shock-launch. These changes are found to be opposite and reversing towards the room temperature value which is the initial condition for plasma ignition case. The observed shock wave properties in both igniting and afterglow plasmas correlate well with the inferred temperature changes in the two plasmas.

• Research Organization: TROY STATE UNIVERSITY, TROY, AL 36082
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC)
• DOE Contract Number: FG02-04ER54792
• OSTI ID: 949758
• Report Number(s): ER54792
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY
ACCELERATION
AFTERGLOW
AMPLITUDES
ARGON
Acoustic shock wave
glow discharge plasma
shock-plasma interaction
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
GLOW DISCHARGES
IGNITION
NITROGEN
PLASMA
SHOCK WAVES
VELOCITY