Simulations of the Stable Expansion of a Monoelement Three-Component Explosive-Emission Plasma

Abstract

The results of numerical simulations of the stable expansion stage of a micro explosive plasma plume are presented. A three-liquid hydrodynamic model was used with corrections allowing its application to the consistent description of the transfer of particles in a monoelement plasma with ions with two different charges and of the electron transfer in a changing plasma–collector vacuum gap. The evolution of concentration profiles, the drift velocity, and electron and ion temperatures in plasma are analyzed depending on conditions of a collector. It is shown in the model that the velocity separation of ions with different charges occurs efficiently in the absence of an external electric field, whereas in a current-carrying plasma, the ions with different charges move with almost identical velocities.