Examination of a Method for Predicting the Properties of Railgun Plasmas,

Abstract

Basic studies of railguns require knowledge of the properties of plasmas. This report examines the work of Dr P. Kovitya who has developed two computer programs for predicting the thermochemical functions and transport coefficients of partially and fully-ionized gases in chemical equilibrium. Kovitya's work is based on extending the use of existing NASA codes from the temperature range of 300 to 5000 K to temperatures up to 30,000 K. In making these extensions, Kovitya has neglected the effect of screened Coulomb interactions on the ionization potentials of the various species comprising the ionised gas. This may produce significantly different numerical results for temperatures above 20,000 K. A detailed discussion of Kovitya's work is presented in this paper and the areas that require further consideration for the work to be applicable to a railgun plasma are highlighted. Keywords: Plasma Diagnostics; Railgun Accelerators.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1985
Accession Number
ADA156630

Entities

People

  • V. Kowalenko

Organizations

  • Defence Science and Technology Group

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Charged Particles
  • Chemical Equilibrium
  • Chemical Reactions
  • Computer Programs
  • Conductivity
  • Electrical Conductivity
  • Energy
  • Free Energy
  • Heat Capacity
  • Ionization
  • Ionized Gases
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Physical Properties
  • Standards
  • Thermal Conductivity
  • Thermodynamic Properties
  • Transport Properties

Readers

  • Combustion science or combustion engineering.
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics
  • ballistics.