Electron scattering in hot/warm plasmas

Electrical and thermal conductivities are presented for aluminum, iron and copper plasmas at various temperatures, and for gold between 15,000 and 30,000 K. The calculations are based on the continuum wave functions computed in the potential of the temperature and density dependent self-consistent ‘average atom’ (AA) model of the plasma. The cross-sections are calculated by using the phase shifts of the continuum electron wave functions and also in the Born approximation. We show the combined effect of the thermal and radiative transport on the effective Rosseland mean opacities at temperatures from 1 to 1000 eV. Comparisons with low temperature experimental data are also presented.     

爆轰等离子体非平衡区的双流体模型

在爆轰等离子体中存在一个由化学反应放热非平衡导致的非平衡电离区。由于电子质量远小于重粒子质量,使得在电离区中电子与重粒子的能量与动量交换效率较低,这也加剧了这种非平衡特性。建立了爆轰等离子体非平衡电离区中的电子和重粒子的双流体模型,并通过该模型研究爆轰等离子体中的非平衡现象。以氢氧爆轰为例计算不同氢氧摩尔比和初始压力条件下,爆轰非平衡区中重粒子参数和电子参数的变化情况。     

特征等离子喷涂参数对WC涂层结构和性能影响

采用等离子喷涂在不同的特征等离子喷涂参数(简称CPSP)条件下制备WC复合涂层,探讨了CPP对涂层显微结构、物相、力学性能和摩擦学性能的影响;采用扫描电子显微镜(SEM)和X射线衍射仪(XRD)表征了涂层的显微结构,通过球盘式摩擦试验机评价了涂层的摩擦磨损性能.结果表明:CPSP对粉末在熔化过程中热物理行为具有重要影响;随着CPSP降低,涂层显微结构、力学性能和摩擦磨损性能均得到了较大改善;试验证实了通过合理优化参数,等离子喷涂也可以制备出性能与超音速火焰喷涂(HVOF)相近的高质量WC涂层.     

An electron moiré method for a common SEM

In the electron moiré method, a high-frequency grating is used to measure microscopic deformation, which promises significant potential applications for the method in the microscopic analysis of materials. However, a special beam scanning control device is required to produce a grating and generate a moiré fringe pattern for the scanning electron microscope (SEM). Because only a few SEMs used in the material science studies are equipped with this device, the use of the electron moiré method is limited. In this study, an electron moiré method for a common SEM without the beam control device is presented. A grating based on a multi-scanning concept is fabricated in any observing mode. A real-time moiré pattern can also be generated in the SEM or an optical filtering system. Without the beam control device being a prerequisite, the electron moiré method can be more widely used. The experimental results from three different types of SEMs show that high quality gratings with uniform lines and less pitch error can be fabricated by this method, and moiré patterns can also be correctly generated.The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10662005) and JSPS fellowship in Japan. The English text was polished by Keren Wang.     

Forced oscillations of a viscous incompressible plasma with allowance for the electron inertia in a circular tube

The forced oscillations of a plasma column resulting from harmonic oscillations of the total current at a frequency ω are investigated analytically and numerically. The column plasma is assumed to be quasi-neutral two-component viscous and electroconducting, the electron inertia and the displacement current being completely taken into account. The electrons and ions are considered to be incompressible interpenetrating fluids. It is shown that the oscillations of the total current lead to the appearance of colliding plasma flows in the column, and, as the oscillation frequency ω increases, a skin layer with respect to main plasma parameters (current density, electromagnetic field, and hydrodynamic electron and ion velocities) develops on the boundary of the column. A comparison with the MHD theory is carried out and the role of the electron inertia and the displacement current in the generation of forced oscillations is investigated. The results obtained are used to analyze the plasma compression in apparatuses such as z-pinch and plasma focus.     

超高速碰撞2024-T4铝靶产生的膨胀等离子体云的电磁特性

针对超高速碰撞产生的瞬态等离子体的特点,利用建立的扫描朗缪尔探针、朗缪尔三探针诊断系 统及线圈系统,测量了超高速碰撞喷出物产生的膨胀等离子体云中等离子体的特征参量和磁感应强度。在传 感器布局和方位角固定的前提下,进行了2种碰撞速度、相同入射角度条件下2024-T4铝弹丸超高速碰撞 2024-T4铝靶产生的膨胀等离子体云电磁特性的实验室测量。实验结果表明,碰撞产生的等离子体的平均电 子温度为0.4~0.9eV,电子密度在1012cm-3量级,线圈的磁感应强度幅值为10~20nT 。通过数据处理,获 得了2种实验条件下整个物理过程在给定探针、线圈位置处等离子体的电子温度、电子密度和磁感应强度与 碰撞速度的关系,并对扫描朗缪尔探针和朗缪尔三探针的测量结果进行了比较。     

Characterization of heat-wave propagation through laser-driven Ti-doped underdense plasma

The propagation of a laser-driven heat-wave into a Ti-doped aerogel target was investigated. The temporal evolution of the electron temperature was derived by means of Ti K-shell X-ray spectroscopy, and compared with two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic simulations. Reasonable agreement was obtained in the early stage of the heat-wave propagation. In the later phase, laser absorption, the propagation of the heat-wave, and hydrodynamic motion interact in a complex manner, and the plasma is mostly re-heated by collision and stagnation at the target central axis.     

Interaction of radiatively cooled plasma jets with neutral gases for laboratory astrophysics studies

A supersonic (Mach～2–3), radiatively cooled plasma jet is produced by the ablation of aluminium plasma from a radial foil, a disc subjected to a ～1.4 MA, 250 ns current from the MAGPIE pulsed-power generator. The ablated plasma converges on axis, producing a steady and collimated jet with axial velocities reaching ～100 km/s. The study of jet-ambient interactions is achieved by introducing a neutral gas above the foil using a fast valve with a supersonic gas nozzle. The system has flexibility to study different interaction geometries in order to vary critical dimensionless parameters for astrophysical studies. In particular the effects of radiative cooling on the working surface of the jet are strongly affected by varying the gas composition. Experimental results are compared to numerical simulations using the 3-D MHD code GORGON.     

Analysis of Thomson scattering data from strongly-driven hydrogen

We present the theory necessary for analysing Thomson scattering data from plasmas in states far from equilibrium. As an example, we compare with experimental data obtained during the interaction of cryogenic hydrogen with the intense VUV radiation of the FLASH free electron laser at DESY in Hamburg. The component due to inelastic scattering from free electrons is treated within a generalised quantum statistical approach which accounts for the nonequilibrium states produced by the strong pump of the FEL radiation. The elastic scattering component is determined by the structure factor of the ions for the initial conditions of a cold, atomic fluid as the ions do not rearrange during the interaction time. Monte Carlo simulations show that this treatment results in a very small elastic scattering feature. Integrating the full nonequilibrium spectrum over time yields excellent agreement with the measured data. Moreover, this treatment gives quantitatively different plasma conditions as may be inferred using an equilibrium analysis.     

Functional enhancement of a non-equilibrium plasma jet by seeding in the applied magnetic field

The experimental study is conducted to clarify the functional enhancement of a non-equilibrium argon plasma jet by seeding potassium in the applied magnetic field to extend its industrial applications. It is shown that the plasma parameters such as electron number density and electron temperature increase considerably by seeding especially in the applied magnetic field, which results in the easy enhancement of transport properties such as electrical conductivity and electron thermal conductivity. Finally, the infrared thermography is shown to visualize the relative variation of radiative temperature field comparing both with seeding and without seeding.     

Increase of the density,temperature and velocity of plasma jets driven by a ring of high energy laser beams

Supersonic plasma outflows driven by multi-beam, high-energy lasers, such as Omega and NIF, have been and will be used as platforms for a variety of laboratory astrophysics experiments. Here we propose a new way of launching high density and high velocity, plasma jets using multiple intense laser beams in a hollow ring formation. We show that such jets provide a more flexible and versatile platform for future laboratory astrophysics experiments. Using high resolution hydrodynamic simulations, we demonstrate that the collimated jets can achieve much higher density, temperature and velocity when multiple laser beams are focused to form a hollow ring pattern at the target, instead of focused onto a single spot. We carried out simulations with different ring radii and studied their effects on the jet properties. Implications for laboratory collisionless shock experiments are discussed.     

The MHD properties of ambipolar diffusion and quasi—Ambipolar diffusion in a plasma column

In the present paper, based on the conservation law of mass and momentum for ion and electron, the distribution of velocity, density of ions and electrons along radial direction are solved numerically. Furthermore, the comparison between MHD properties of ambipolar and quasi-ambipolar diffusion is made. The numerical calculation is carried out for argon plasma. The results show that the ion density, ratio of ion and electron velocity at the cathode sheath boundary surface increase with the intensity of magnetic induction, meanwhile, the distance between sheaths decreases as well as the radial velocity of ion and electron at the anode sheath boundary. The ion density varies in accord with experiment qualitatively^[1]. All parameters mentioned above are not sensitive to magnetic field in ambipolar diffusion.     

超高速碰撞LY12铝靶产生等离子体的电子温度诊断

为了诊断超高速碰撞过程中产生等离子体的电子温度,进而研究不同碰撞速度、相同入射角度（弹道与靶板平面的夹角）下超高速碰撞产生瞬态等离子体在整个物理过程的电子温度随时间的演化规律,设计了适用于瞬态等离子体诊断的扫描Langmuir探针诊断系统。通过二级轻气炮加载LY12球形铝弹丸,运用设计的扫描Langmuir探针诊断系统分别进行了入射角度为30、不同碰撞速度下碰撞LY12铝靶产生等离子体的实验诊断。获得了整个物理过程在给定探针位置处等离子体的电子温度与碰撞速度的关系。     

Effective Relative Permeabilities and Capillary Pressure for One-Dimensional Heterogeneous Media

The paper presents an analytical construction of effective two-phase parameters for one-dimensional heterogeneous porous media, and studies their properties. We base the computation of effective parameters on analytical solutions for steady-state saturation distributions. Special care has to be taken with respect to saturation and pressure discontinuities at the interface between different rocks. The ensuing effective relative permeabilities and effective capillary pressure will be functions of rate, flow direction, fluid viscosities, and spatial scale of the heterogeneities.The applicability of the effective parameters in dynamic displacement situations is studied by comparing fine-gridded simulations in heterogeneous media with simulations in their homogeneous (effective) counterparts. Performance is quite satisfactory, even with strong fronts present. Also, we report computations studying the applicability of capillary limit parameters outside the strict limit.     

Fast electric microfield distribution calculations in strongly coupled Yukawa plasmas

The low-frequency electric microfield distribution for fields at a point with charge equal to the plasma constituents is calculated for a wide range of ion–ion coupling and electron screening parameters in the 3D one-component Yukawa fluid domain. We use a modified adjustable-parameter exponential method incorporating the variational modified hypernetted chain approach. The results are represented by analytic fitting formulas suitable for applications.     

Multi-electron-recombination rates estimated within dense plasmas

We investigate the rates for multielectron recombination within a dense plasma with Maxwellian electron energy distribution function. We find that these rates can be high within dense plasmas, and they should be treated in the simulations of the plasmas created by intense radiation, in particular for plasmas created by intense VUV radiation from free-electron-laser (FEL), or for modeling the inertial confinement fusion (ICF) plasmas.     

Complex investigation of deformation twinning in γ-TiAl by TEM and neutron diffraction

A near-γ TiAl based alloy with 2 at% of Nb was investigated by means of collaborative research based on transmission electron microscopy and in-situ neutron diffraction techniques with the aim to study mechanical twinning and its role within the mechanisms governing fatigue response and material properties. In-situ neutron diffraction measurements were performed during low cycle fatigue straining at room temperature. Induced lattice strain related to the formation of deformation twins was detected and used to follow changes in the macroscopic material response caused by the twinning process during cycling. A microscopic insight was realised by using several transmission electron microscopy techniques to reveal in detail an internal deformation microstructure of the material at the beginning as well as at the end of the fatigue life. The study was focused on the first loading cycles where the material shows intense cyclic hardening. The effect of mechanical twinning on the material behaviour at several stages of the fatigue life is discussed for two different total strain amplitudes of 0.2% and 0.4%.     

Experimental characterization and CFD simulation of gas maldistribution in turbulent fluidization of Group A particles

The study presented hereby investigates experimentally and with CFD simulations the gas distribution effect on the hydrodynamic of a Geldart Group A turbulent fluidized bed. Experiments were carried out on a cold flow fluidized bed column with an even and uneven gas distribution. Local solid volume fraction profiles were measured using optical probes at different bed heights and along two radial directions. Optical probe measurements allow catching a clear hydrodynamic difference between both even and uneven gas distributions. These results were then used to assess CFD simulations with the code Barracuda™ (MP-PIC approach). It is noteworthy that the choice of drag correlation and boundary conditions strongly influences the agreement between the experimental and CFD results. Once the correct parameters are chosen, CFD simulations captured the effect of gas distribution changes.     

Discussions on the correspondence of dissipative particle dynamics and Langevin dynamics at small scales

We investigate the behavior of dissipative particle dynamics(DPD) within different scaling regimes by numerical simulations. The paper extends earlier analytical findings of Ripoll, M., Ernst, M. H., and Espa?nol, P.(Large scale and mesoscopic hydrodynamics for dissipative particle dynamics. Journal of Chemical Physics, 115(15),7271–7281(2001)) by evaluation of numerical data for the particle and collective scaling regimes and the four different subregimes. DPD simulations are performed for a range of dynamic overlapping parameters. Based on analyses of the current auto-correlation functions(CACFs), we demonstrate that within the particle regime at scales smaller than its force cut-off radius, DPD follows Langevin dynamics. For the collective regime,we show that the small-scale behavior of DPD differs from Langevin dynamics. For the wavenumber-dependent effective shear viscosity, universal scaling regimes are observed in the microscopic and mesoscopic wavenumber ranges over the considered range of dynamic overlapping parameters.