Final Report for Contract N00014-81-C-2293,

Abstract

The breakdown plasma was observed to travel towards the source with a velocity of 4.6 x 10 to the sixth power cm/s. This was a result of the formation of a sufficiently dense plasma to reflect the incident microwaves. This decoupling mechanism makes localized heating of air by microwaves extremely difficult, if not impossible. Rapid heating of the air is further minimized by the large amount of energy trapped by nitrogen vibrational states. These states lock-up energy for long periods of time, preventing its transfer to kinetic energy. Observation of the electron temperature (Te - 3.8 eV) confirmed this. These two factors prevent the formation of large shock waves due to rapid heating of the air. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 12, 1983
Accession Number
ADA127653

Entities

People

  • W. Michael Bollen

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Barometric Pressure
  • Contracts
  • Decoupling
  • Electrons
  • Energy
  • Kinetic Energy
  • Microwaves
  • Military Research
  • Nitrogen
  • Observation
  • Office Buildings
  • Shock
  • Shock Waves
  • Waves

Readers

  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Plasma Physics.
  • Software Engineering

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics