Semi-analytic model for plasma production and Cherenkov radiation emission from hypervelocity impacts on soda–lime glass

Abstract

A semi-analytic method is proposed to compute the produced plasma and the emitted Cherenkov radiation from hypervelocity impacts on soda–lime glass for various projectiles and impact velocities. First, the Taylor–von Neumann–Sedov blast wave model, coupled with the system of nonlinear Saha equations for multispecies, strongly coupled plasma, is adopted to estimate the hydrodynamic profiles and the ionization state of the target material in the early stage of the impact. Second, the Frank–Tamm formula is considered to investigate the onset of the Cherenkov radiation and to compute the emitted energy. The present approach predicts a linear dependence of the produced total electric charge on the projectile density and a quadratic dependence on the projectile velocity, whereas the emitted Cherenkov radiation scales quadratically with the produced charge if the onset conditions are met.