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B2.5-Eunomia simulations of Magnum-PSI detachment experiments: II. Collisional processes and their relevance

Author
Abstract

Detachment is achieved in Magnum-PSI by increasing the neutral background pressure in the target chamber using gas puffing. The plasma is studied using the B2.5 multi fluid plasma code B2.5 coupled with Eunomia, a Monte Carlo solver for neutral species. This study focuses on the effect of increasing neutral background pressure to the plasma volumetric loss of particle, momentum and energy. The plasma particle and energy loss almost linearly scale with the increase of neutral background pressure, while the momentum loss does not scale as strongly. Plasma recombination processes include molecular activated recombination (MAR), dissociative attachment, and atomic recombination. Atomic recombination, which includes radiative and three-body recombination, is the most relevant plasma process in reducing the particle flux and, consequently, the heat flux to the target. The low temperature where atomic recombination becomes dominant is achieved by plasma cooling via elastic H+-H-2 collisions. The transport of vibrationally excited H-2 molecules out of the plasma serves as an additional electron cooling channel with relatively small contribution. Additionally, the transport of highly vibrational H-2 has a significant impact in reducing the effective MAR and dissociative attachment collision rates and should be considered properly. The relevancy of MAR and atomic recombination occupy separate electron temperature regimes, respectively, at T-e = 1.5 eV and T-e = 0.3 eV, with dissociative attachment being relevant in the intermediary. Plasma cooling via elastic H+-H-2 collisions is effective at Te <= 1 eV.

Year of Publication
2022
Journal
Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
Volume
64
Issue
1
Number of Pages
015001
Publisher
American Chemical Society
URL
https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/en/publications/b25-eunomia-simulations-of-magnum-psi-detachment-experiments-ii-c
DOI
10.1088/1361-6587/ac38b4
Dataset
https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5116241
PId
0efc7710f961a22a1425740f22cac070
Alternate Journal
Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion
Label
OA
Attachment
Journal Article
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