Ionization Front and Shock Wave Structures in Microwave Propulsion

摘要

A two-dimensional finite-difference time domain code was coupled with compressible fluid calculation and a simple ionization model to reproduce microwave propagation and shock formation in atmospheric microwave discharge. Plasma filaments are driven toward the microwave source at the atmospheric pressure, and the distance between filaments is one-quarter of the microwave wavelength as predicted in previous works. The strong shock wave is generated due to the high electron density and the large energy absorption. On the other hand, the plasma becomes diffusive at the lower pressure so that the shock wave weakens as a result of smaller energy absorption.