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- Title
- A global modeling framework for plasma kinetics : development and applications
- Creator
- Parsey, Guy Morland
- Date
- 2017
- Collection
- Electronic Theses & Dissertations
- Description
-
The modern study of plasmas, and applications thereof, has developed synchronously with com-puter capabilities since the mid-1950s. Complexities inherent to these charged-particle, many-body, systems have resulted in the development of multiple simulation methods (particle-in-cell,fluid, global modeling, etc.) in order to both explain observed phenomena and predict outcomesof plasma applications. Recognizing that different algorithms are chosen to best address specifictopics of interest, this...
Show moreThe modern study of plasmas, and applications thereof, has developed synchronously with com-puter capabilities since the mid-1950s. Complexities inherent to these charged-particle, many-body, systems have resulted in the development of multiple simulation methods (particle-in-cell,fluid, global modeling, etc.) in order to both explain observed phenomena and predict outcomesof plasma applications. Recognizing that different algorithms are chosen to best address specifictopics of interest, this thesis centers around the development of an open-source global model frame-work for the focused study of non-equilibrium plasma kinetics. After verification and validationof the framework, it was used to study two physical phenomena: plasma-assisted combustion andthe recently proposed optically-pumped rare gas metastable laser.Global models permeate chemistry and plasma science, relying on spatial averaging to focusattention on the dynamics of reaction networks. Defined by a set of species continuity and energyconservation equations, the required data and constructed systems are conceptually similar acrossmost applications, providing a light platform for exploratory and result-search parameter scan-ning. Unfortunately, it is common practice for custom code to be developed for each application-an enormous duplication of effort which negatively affects the quality of the software produced.Presented herein, the Python-based Kinetic Global Modeling framework (KGMf) was designed tosupport all modeling phases: collection and analysis of reaction data, construction of an exportablesystem of model ODEs, and a platform for interactive evaluation and post-processing analysis. Asymbolic ODE system is constructed for interactive manipulation and generation of a Jacobian,both of which are compiled as operation-optimized C-code.Plasma-assisted combustion and ignition (PAC/PAI) embody the modernization of burning fuelby opening up new avenues of control and optimization. With applications ranging from engineefficiency and pollution control to stabilized operation of scramjet technology in hypersonic flows,developing an understanding of the underlying plasma chemistry is of the utmost importance.While the use of equilibrium (thermal) plasmas in the combustion process extends back to the ad-vent of the spark-ignition engine, works from the last few decades have demonstrated fundamentaldifferences between PAC and classical combustion theory. The KGMf is applied to nanosecond-discharge systems in order to analyze the effects of electron energy distribution assumptions onreaction kinetics and highlight the usefulness of 0D modeling in systems defined by coupled andcomplex physics.With fundamentally different principles involved, the concept of optically-pumped rare gasmetastable lasing (RGL) presents a novel opportunity for scalable high-powered lasers by takingadvantage of similarities in the electronic structure of elements while traversing the periodic ta-ble. Building from the proven concept of diode-pumped alkali vapor lasers (DPAL), RGL systemsdemonstrate remarkably similar spectral characteristics without problems associated with heatedcaustic vapors. First introduced in 2012, numerical studies on the latent kinetics remain immature.This work couples an analytic model developed for DPAL with KGMf plasma chemistry to bet-ter understand the interaction of a non-equilibrium plasma with the induced laser processes anddetermine if optical pumping could be avoided through careful discharge selection.
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- Title
- Multipactor in the presence of higher-order modes : a numerical study
- Creator
- Rice, Scott Alan
- Date
- 2017
- Collection
- Electronic Theses & Dissertations
- Description
-
Resonant electromagnetic structures are vitally important in engineering and scientific applications, ranging from devices as ubiquitous as antennas and microwave ovens, to devices as demanding as high-power microwave sources and particle accelerator components. As we push the limits on the design and operation of such structures, one of the physical limitations that we must contend with is electrical breakdown, which becomes increasingly likely as we increase field strength and reduce...
Show moreResonant electromagnetic structures are vitally important in engineering and scientific applications, ranging from devices as ubiquitous as antennas and microwave ovens, to devices as demanding as high-power microwave sources and particle accelerator components. As we push the limits on the design and operation of such structures, one of the physical limitations that we must contend with is electrical breakdown, which becomes increasingly likely as we increase field strength and reduce structure sizes. Multipactor is a type of breakdown in which electromagnetic fields accelerate free electrons into a material, which then ejects secondary electrons which are re-accelerated back into the material, and which sustains or grows the breakdown current over time. We are interested in understanding multipactor better because it is one of the common design constraints for high-power resonant structures around microwave frequencies, such as klystrons, couplers, waveguides, and accelerating cavities used in particle accelerators. Besides being a design constraint, we could also potentially employ the non-linear nature of multipactor to intentionally attenuate sporadic harmful power levels which may affect certain sensitive equipment, such as for the protection of front-end electronics on radio receivers in space-borne applications. This dissertation details the results of numerical study of two-surface multipactor driven by time-harmonic fields, with a specific focus upon how secondary electron emission models can affect the resulting multipactor predictions, and how multipactor susceptibility and trajectories can be affected by the presence of additional modes within a resonant structure. The primary focus is on multipactor occurring between the inner and outer conductors of coaxial geometries, but some parallel plate geometries are also considered. The scope of investigation is limited to the multipactor regime in which space charge effects can be neglected. In practice this means the early-time evolution of multipactor, since it takes some time before space charge effects become significant. Despite this simplifying assumption not being applicable to the late-time behavior of multipactor, this approach still allows for much practical benefit in the understanding of multipactor genesis and controllability, which is frequently the most significant concern of engineering interest.
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- Title
- Modeling and simulation of strongly coupled plasmas
- Creator
- Chowdhury, Rahnuma Rifat
- Date
- 2016
- Collection
- Electronic Theses & Dissertations
- Description
-
The objective of this work is to develop new modeling and simulation tools for studying strongly coupled plasmas (SCP). Strongly coupled plasmas are different from traditional plasmas as potential energy is larger than the kinetic energy. The standard plasma model does not account for some major effects in SCP: 1) the change in the permittivity 2) the impact on relaxation of the charged particles undergoing Coulomb collisions in a system with weakly shielded long range interactions3) the...
Show moreThe objective of this work is to develop new modeling and simulation tools for studying strongly coupled plasmas (SCP). Strongly coupled plasmas are different from traditional plasmas as potential energy is larger than the kinetic energy. The standard plasma model does not account for some major effects in SCP: 1) the change in the permittivity 2) the impact on relaxation of the charged particles undergoing Coulomb collisions in a system with weakly shielded long range interactions3) the impact of statistical fluctuations in strongly coupled plasmas that leads to non-Markovian effects. Proper modeling of such systems through consideration of Lévy flight processes gives rise to fractional derivatives in time that result in an incorporation of time history in the model. A Lévy flight is a random walk in which the steps are defined in terms of the step-lengths, which have a certain probability distribution, with the directions of the steps being isotropic and random. Lévy processes in the plasma give rise to fluctuations in medium through which the electromagnetic waves are propagating. Averaging over the Lévy processes will allow us to relate to other important parameters in the plasma.
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- Title
- Electrostatic particle based modeling and simulation of ultra cold plasma
- Creator
- Jain, Mayur
- Date
- 2015
- Collection
- Electronic Theses & Dissertations
- Description
-
We model moderately coupled ultra cold plasma based on experimental setups and investigate the influence of external electric and magnetic fields by simulating the interaction of this plasma with constant magnetic field and radio frequency fields in the form of continuous application and short pulses. A density dependent resonant response is observed through these simulations and we infer the cause to be rapid energy transfer to individual electrons from electric fields through the collective...
Show moreWe model moderately coupled ultra cold plasma based on experimental setups and investigate the influence of external electric and magnetic fields by simulating the interaction of this plasma with constant magnetic field and radio frequency fields in the form of continuous application and short pulses. A density dependent resonant response is observed through these simulations and we infer the cause to be rapid energy transfer to individual electrons from electric fields through the collective motion of the electron cloud rather than a collision based mechanism since collisional time scales are found to be larger than the response period. It is also observed that electron evaporation influences the UCP expansion by reducing theelectron temperature signicantly. These arguments are corroborated by experimental results. We report diagnostics such as temperature, potential and density evolution, electron and ion pair correlation functions, and estimate the size of the UCP with varying initial ionization energies for the ultra cold plasma throughout complete simulation.
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