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Study of an Underexpanded Plasma Jet
Author(s) -
Anders A.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
beiträge aus der plasmaphysik
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.531
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1521-3986
pISSN - 0005-8025
DOI - 10.1002/ctpp.19870270309
Subject(s) - plasma , shock diamond , supersonic speed , jet (fluid) , plasmatron , mach number , plasmoid , shock (circulatory) , schlieren , physics , mechanics , schlieren imaging , turbulence , bow shock (aerodynamics) , oblique shock , shock wave , nuclear physics , medicine , magnetic reconnection
Supersonic jets (Mach number M = 1.4 – 2.0) of dense plasma were produced by a plasmatron in a pulsed regime. The shock structure was investigated by fast mirror cameras, by the schlieren technique and by probe and spectroscopic methods. It was found that during jet expansion the bow shock ahead the gas‐plasma interface and the shock behind it are superimposed with the quasistationary shock structure which includes the Mach disk. Whereas the plasma in the discharge chamber is in LTE ( n E ≈ 5 × 10 23 m −3 , T ≈ 14000 K), the electron density of the expanding jet plasma falls to a plateau value of n E ≈ 5 × 10 19 m −3 below the LTE limit. At this phase, the jet plasma formed a ball‐like turbulent plasmoid which moves at a subsonic velocity through the air up to some milliseconds.