HIGH-FREQUENCY BREAKDOWN OF NONUNIFORM GASES IN SPATIALLY VARYING FIELDS,

Abstract

A method is described for predicting the field strength required to produce cw breakdown of gases with spatially varying properties subjected to electric fields of nonuniform intensity. The proposed method is based on a variational principle derived from the electron continuity equation. A Ritz method is used to generate solutions of the variational problem. The approximate solutions are evaluated by comparing them with several exact solutions which are also developed in this paper. The use of a one-term trial function in the Ritz method is found to give very good agreement with the exact solutions. A two-term approximation provides greater accuracy than is presently available from experimental data. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 1967
Accession Number
AD0664053

Entities

People

  • Melvin Epstein

Organizations

  • The Aerospace Corporation

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Accuracy
  • Agreements
  • Continuity
  • Differential Equations
  • Electric Fields
  • Electrons
  • Equations
  • Experimental Data
  • Frequency
  • Intensity
  • Mathematics
  • Nonuniform
  • Variational Principles

Readers

  • Finite Element Method (FEM) for solving Partial Differential Equations (PDEs)
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics