Modeling of Inelastic Collisions in a Multifluid Plasma: Ionization and Recombination

TL;DR

This paper develops a detailed multifluid plasma model for ionization and recombination, incorporating detailed balance and collisional-radiative processes, with numerical results demonstrating the impact on hydrogen plasma kinetics.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive multifluid model for ionization and recombination, integrating detailed balance and collisional-radiative effects into plasma kinetics.

Findings

Multifluid effects significantly influence hydrogen plasma kinetics.

The model accurately incorporates ionization and recombination source terms.

Numerical solutions highlight the importance of multifluid dynamics.

Abstract

A model for ionization and recombination collisions in a multifluid plasma is formulated using the framework introduced in previous work [{Phys. Plasmas} \textbf{22}, 093512 (2015)]. The exchange source terms for density, momentum and energy are detailed for the case of electron induced ionization and three body recombination collisions with isotropic scattering. The principle of detailed balance is enforced at the microscopic level. We describe how to incorporate the standard collisional-radiative model into the multifluid equations using the current formulation. Numerical solutions of the collisional-radiative rate equations for atomic hydrogen are presented to highlight the impact of the multifluid effect on the kinetics.