Electron Beam Source Array for Low Temperature, Atmospheric Pressure, Controllable Air Plasma Processes

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Richard MilesECS-0079344 This proposal is for development of a 100 element electron beam array source for the production and control of volumetric air plasmas. The development project will be undertaken in partnership with Sandia Laboratories in Albuquerque, NM. The electron beam array source will permit the study of volume filling air plasmas and MHD processes at temperatures far below those required for thermally sustained plasmas and under conditions which otherwise lead to arcing instabilities in electric field driven plasmas. The research areas that will be supported by this MRI equipment include following: 1) The exploration of approaches to the modification of attachment and recombination mechanisms at temperatures below 2000K in order to minimize the power requirements for sustaining volume air plasmas.2) The study of the extraction of power from high speed, low temperature (3000K) air by MHD processes through the use of electron beam sustained conductivity.3) The development of new control strategies for MHD processes using the currents of the 100 electron beam elements to spatially distribute and temporally modulate the conductivity.4) The study of rapidly reconfigurable plasma arrays for the reflection of electromagnetic radiation.The device will consist of 100 separately controllable electron beams arranged in a 7 cm by 7 cm, 10 x 10 array. The size of the array has been chosen to fit into a 7 Tesla magnet which will be use to guide the electrons and, with the addition of electrodes, will become the power extraction channel for the study of MHD processes.