Polarity dependent plasma dynamics in a tri-plate POS

Author

Commisso, R.J. ; Riley, R.A. ; Grossmann, J.M. ; Weber, B.V. ; Hinshelwood, D.D. ; Jones, T.G. ; Ottinger, P.F. ; Swanekamp, S.B. ; Watrous, J.J.

Author_Institution

Naval Res. Lab., Washington, DC, USA

Volume

1

fYear

1998

fDate

6/20/1905 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

265

Abstract

An experimental comparison is presented of a planar, tri-plate POS operated in both negative and positive polarity. For the same initial conditions, the conduction time is longer in positive than in negative polarity and interferometry reveals marked differences in the evolution of the plasma distribution. 2-D Hall/MHD calculations are also presented for a situation similar, but not identical, to the experiment. We conclude that Hall physics can play a major role in the POS plasma dynamics during the conduction phase of the POS and in determining the initial conditions for the opening phase

Keywords

plasma magnetohydrodynamics; plasma switches; 2D Hall/MHD calculations; negative polarity; planar triplate POS; plasma dynamics; plasma opening switch; polarity dependent plasma dynamics; positive polarity; Conductors; Geometry; Hardware; Laboratories; Load flow; Physics; Plasma density; Plasma diagnostics; Plasma measurements; Switches;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

High-Power Particle Beams, 1998. BEAMS '98. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Haifa

Print_ISBN

0-7803-4287-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/BEAMS.1998.822427

Filename

822427