Electronic Partition Functions for Plasmas in a Capillary Discharge
Abstract
Calculations are undertaken for the electronic partition functions of plasmas in a temperature and pressure range relevant to electrothermal-chemical gun applications. The intent is to assess the limitations of results obtained previously, as well as to provide an improvement for existing models for the capillary discharge. Various thermophysical properties that depend on the electronic partition functions are calculated and compared with results obtained in preceding work. The general conclusion reached is that accurate predictions of the concentrations of minority species in the plasma require highly accurate calculations of the partition functions. Less accurate approximations, however, predict the concentration of majority species, as well as most of the thermophysical properties of the plasma, reasonably accurately.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA388714
Entities
People
- John D. Powell
Organizations
- United States Army Research Laboratory