Plasma Behavior in a High‐Temperature Noble Gas Plasma Disk‐Shaped MHD Power Generator

Abstract

R-θ two-dimensional numerical simulations have been carried out to clarify the plasma behavior in a hightemperature noble gas plasma disk-shaped magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generator. At low inlet total temperature and high load resistance, the plasma has spiral structure which is similar to the nonuniform structure under the weak noble gas ionization condition in a seed-plasma MHD generator. As seen in a linear-shaped Faraday-type MHD generator, the plasma becomes stable with increase in the inlet total temperature because the coulomb collision of electrons becomes dominant. Even at low inlet total temperature, the ionization instability can be suppressed for low load resistance, because the relatively low electron temperature due to less Joule heating makes the ionization relaxation time longer than plasma residential time. C⃝ 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 197(2): 33-40, 2016; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

Fundamental experiments of radio‐frequency preionized inert gas plasma MHD electrical power generation

“…Experiments using argon as the working gas confirmed uniform plasma structure at inlet total temperature above 8000 K, and verified power generation efficiency comparable to that of seeded plasma . Similar results were also obtained by numerical analyses . However, electrical conductivity achieved by this method is very low at inlet total temperature of 2200‐2400 K assumed in continuous operation, and power generation cannot be realized.…”

Numerical Study on the Effect of Anode Position on the Performance of Disk MHD Generator

“…Most researchers have carried out a series of research under the fixed anode position [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Lin B C [8] conducted unsteady-state quasi-one-dimensional numerical simulations to investigate the influence of the inlet opening circuit part of the disk MHD generator on the stability of the generator in two cases.…”