Determination of characteristic parameters in rapid plasma flow
Abstract
Cylindrical Langmuir probes were used to investigate the plasma jet of a continuously operating MPD accelerator of the self-field type. The radial and axial distributions of the following quantities were determined in detail: the flow direction of the ions, the ratio of the directed ion velocity to the most probable thermal speed (ion Mach number), the flow velocity of the ions, the electron temperature, and the ion density. The static pressure in the plasma jet was estimated from the ion density and the electron temperature, and it was shown that entrainment is not present. A comparison of the mass flow through a cross section of the jet, calculated from the measured values, is in good agreement with the applied mass flow rate.
- Publication:
-
Determination of characteristic parameters in rapid plasma flow Transl. into ENGLISH of "Bestimmung von charakteristischen Parametern in schnellen Plasmastroemungen mit Langmuirsonden
- Pub Date:
- June 1975
- Bibcode:
- 1975dcpr.rept.....M
- Keywords:
-
- Electrostatic Probes;
- Magnetohydrodynamic Flow;
- Plasma Accelerators;
- Plasma Jets;
- Axial Flow;
- Electron Energy;
- Ion Density (Concentration);
- Mass Flow;
- Radial Distribution;
- Plasma Physics