Improved opacity calculations and radiation transport modelling for ETC plasma cartridges

In ETC (electrothermal capillary) plasma injectors, radiation transport inside the capillary plays an important role in determining the radial temperature profile T(r). Radiation transport is affected by the variation of opacity with plasma density and temperature, and the photon energy. Hence opacity tables must be generated as accurately as possible. We have generated improved opacity data that includes contributions from bound-bound, bound-free, free-free and relevant scattering contributions with nonideal effects. The I-splitting of electronic energy levels is also taken into account. Frequency averaged opacities generated by our code for several elements, over a wide range of densities and temperatures, generally lie in the range given by other opacity codes. There is also a reasonable match with some published experimental data. In this paper we compare our code results with earlier ones. We have also performed preliminary l-D radiation hydrodynamics simulations.