The performance of a high-temperature inert-gas-plasma Faraday-type magnetohydrodynamic generator with various working gases (helium, argon, and Xenon) is examined numerically. In all cases, ionization instability is suppressed at a high inlet total temperature at which Coulomb collisions become dominant and the dependence of electrical conductivity on electron number density becomes weak. In the presence of ionization instability at a low inlet total temperature, the fluctuation of power output for Xenon is the smallest with a large wave number for the plasma structure. The highest enthalpy-extraction ratio is achieved for helium, which has the highest interaction parameter.
High-Temperature Inert-Gas-Plasma Faraday-Type Magnetohydrodynamic Generator with Various Working Gases
Journal of Propulsion and Power ; 32 , 4 ; 1009-1014
2016-03-29
6 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English