Simulation and Physical Character Analysis of the Operation Process of POS

Particle-in-cell simulation method is used to integrally study the operation process of a low-density plasma opening switch (POS) with or without external applied magnetic field. The experiment has successfully simulated the space-time variety of electromagnetic field and kinetic behavior of electrons in the POS. The phenomena that happened in the operation process of POS, such as magnetic field penetration, magnetic insulation, irregular movement of nonuniformity particles, and aberrance of the field in electromagnetohydrodynamic operation process, were analyzed to investigate the open process of POS based on the characters of electromagnetic field. The analysis results proved that angle magnetic field which had the same direction with the drive current magnetic field can improve the performance of the POS. The conclusion of this paper provides a general solution method to optimize the configurable parameters and the controllable movement of plasma.