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Plasma Behavior in a High‐Temperature Noble Gas Plasma Disk‐Shaped MHD Power Generator
Author(s) -
TANAKA MANABU,
OKUNO YOSHIHIRO
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
electrical engineering in japan
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.136
H-Index - 28
eISSN - 1520-6416
pISSN - 0424-7760
DOI - 10.1002/eej.22865
Subject(s) - magnetohydrodynamic generator , plasma , magnetohydrodynamic drive , magnetohydrodynamics , atomic physics , joule heating , ionization , materials science , noble gas , mechanics , physics , ion , composite material , quantum mechanics
SUMMARY R‐θ two‐dimensional numerical simulations have been carried out to clarify the plasma behavior in a high‐temperature noble gas plasma disk‐shaped magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generator. At low inlet total temperature and high load resistance, the plasma has spiral structure which is similar to the nonuniform structure under the weak noble gas ionization condition in a seed‐plasma MHD generator. As seen in a linear‐shaped Faraday‐type MHD generator, the plasma becomes stable with increase in the inlet total temperature because the coulomb collision of electrons becomes dominant. Even at low inlet total temperature, the ionization instability can be suppressed for low load resistance, because the relatively low electron temperature due to less Joule heating makes the ionization relaxation time longer than plasma residential time.