ON THE PROBLEM OF PLASMA ACCELERATION IN CROSSED FIELDS (K VOPROSU OB USKORENII PLAZMY V SKRESHCHENNYKH POLYAKH),
Abstract
The present work considers the requirements for neutral plasma acceleration in crossed electric and magnetic fields. The analysis is performed for rail gun accelerators. It is shown that when the plasma density of the accelerated plasmoid is high, the plasmoid should be considered as an Ohmic load for typical circuit parameters employed in many experiments. If the density of plasma is low and the same circuit parameters are used, the load is capacitive. For the case of very low density or very low inductance circuit, the inductive characteristics of the plasma load emerge. The first two cases are considered in detail and examples are provided. It is found that the conditions for Ohmic loading of the gun by accelerating plasma are difficult to achieve. In the case of capacitive loading, 20% to 25% of the stored energy can be transferred to the plasma, with the optimum plasmoid velocity being (c/2) (E/H). Such loads are much more easy to achieve than Ohmic loads. It is also noted that account must be taken of the current variation in various portions of the plasmoid, which in turn may induce plasma instabilities which complicate the simplified behavior of plasma acceleration described above.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 04, 1967
- Accession Number
- AD0674672
Entities
People
- N. A. Khizhnyak
Organizations
- National Air and Space Intelligence Center