THE GAS LAW AND THE CONDUCTIVITY OF A COLLISION-FREE PLASMA

Abstract

THE MOMENT METHOD IS USED TO DERIVE A FORM OF TWO-COMPONENT MAGNET-GAS DYNAMICS FOR A COLLISION-FREE PLASMA. CLOSURE OF THE MOMENT EQUATIONS IS ACHIEVED BY IGNORING VARIATIONS OF FOURTH MOMENTS OF THE PECULIAR VELOCITIES FOR EACH COMPONENT. THIS PROVIDES A FULLY ADIABATIC GAS LAW WHICH REPRESENTS A GENERALIZATION OF THE SINGLE OR DOUBLE ADIABATIC LAWS IN THAT IT PREDICTS THE GYRATIONS OF THE PRESSURE TENSOR, AS WELL AS THE PRINCIPAL PRESSURES. THE CURRENTS ARE CALCULATED WHICH SMALL PERTURBING ELECTRIC FIELDS CAUSE TO FLOW IN EACH SPECIES, IN ACCORDANCE WITH ITS OWN ADIABATIC GAS DYNAMICS. A CONDUCTIVITY TENSOR IS THUS DEDUCED. THIS TENSOR IS COMPARED WITH THAT RESULTING FROM RIGOROUS KINETIC THEORY (WUTHOUT CLOSURE) FOR THE CASE OF A UNIFORM PLASMA.

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 12, 1960
Accession Number
AD0250247

Entities

People

  • O. Buneman

Organizations

  • Stanford University

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Collisions
  • Conductivity
  • Dynamics
  • Electric Fields
  • Equations
  • Gas Dynamics
  • Gas Laws
  • Kinetic Theory
  • Physics

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Fluid Dynamics.
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics