Plasma Fluid Flow Behavior and Power Generation Characteristics in a High‐Temperature Inert Gas Plasma Faraday MHD Generator

Abstract

The plasma fluid flow behavior and power generation characteristics in a Faraday magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) generator using a high-temperature inert gas (argon) plasma have been examined in a time-dependent two-dimensional numerical simulation. The inhomogeneous and unstable plasma at an inlet total temperature of 7000 K results in reductions and fluctuations in the output power. The plasma becomes homogeneous and stable as the inlet total temperature increases to 9000 K. One of the reasons for the suppression of ionization instability may be weakness of the dependency of the electrical conductivity on the electron number density, because the Coulomb collision of electrons becomes dominant during deviation from Saha equilibrium. C⃝ 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 194(2): 46-53, 2016; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

Numerical Simulations for a Partial Disk MHD Generator Performance

“…The wall of the partial channel is electrically insulating, and its temperature is set to be 300 K. The boundary condition for the electrical equation is given as Φ = 0 on the anode and Φ = Vh on the cathode, where Vh is the Hall voltage. As shown in Figure 1b The non-equilibrium seed-free plasma as working gas in Faraday-Type and Disk-Type generator channel have been widely studied [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28]. In this paper, high-temperature seed-free argon plasma is used.…”