A Plasma Opening Switch Model for Power Flow Electrical Circuit Design

A NEW PLASMA OPENING SWITCH (POS) MODEL IS PROPOSED FOR IMPLEMENTATION INTO AN ELECTRICAL CIRCUIT COMPUTER CODE. THE UNIQUE APPROACH DESCRIBED IN THIS PROPOSAL INCORPORATES A SEGMENTED SHEATH MODEL INTO THE EXISTING MAGNETOHYDRODYNAMICG (MHD) CODEPRISM DEVELOPED BY BERKELEY RESEARCH ASSOCIATES, INC. THE VERSION PROPOSED FOR PHASE I INCLUDES 1) TWO-DIMENSIONAL MHD MOTION OF THE BULK PLASMA; 2) RELATIVISTIC, EQUILIBRIUM ELECTRON MOTION IN THE SHEATH; 3) DYNAMIC ION MOTION IN THE SHEATH; AND 4) SOLUTIONS TO GAUSS'S LAW AND AMPERE'S LAW IN THE SHEATH. THIS FORMULATION IS CAREFULLY CHOSEN TO BALANCE INCLUSION OF THOSE BASIC PHYSICAL FEATURES BELIEVED PRESENT IN LONG CONDUCTION TIME OPENING SWITCHES WITH COMPUTATIOTIAL EFFICIENCY. THE INFORMATION REQUIRED FOR THE POS-CIRCUIT MODEL WILL BE THE INITIAL PLASMA STATE, THE GEOMETRY, AND CIRCUIT PARAMETERS FOR THE GENERATOR AND THE LOAD. THERE ARE NO OTHER FREE PARAMETERS. A SINGLE FOB MODEL ENCOMPASSES BOTH THE CONDUCTION AND OPENING PHASES RATHER THAN USING SEPARATE MODELS FOR EACH PHASE. IN PHASE I, THE FOB MODEL WILL BE EMBEDDED IN A CIRCUIT CODE WHICH WILL BE COMPRISED OF RLC CIRCUIT AND TRANSMISSION LINE MODULES TO REPRESENT THE GENERATOR AND LOAD. RESULTS FROM THIS MODEL WILL BE COMPARED TO EXISTING EXPERIMENTS SUCH A DPMI AT THE PHYSICS INTERNATIONAL COMPANY, ACE 4 AT MAXWELL LABORATORIES, AND HAWK AT NRL.