APPLICATION OF A HYBRID COLLISIONAL RADIATIVE MODEL TO RECOMBINING ARGON PLASMAS

A collisional radiative model, in which a hybrid cut-off technique is used, is applied to recombining plasmas to study the atomic state distribution (ASDF) and the recombination coefficient. Computations of the ASDF using semi-empirical rate coefficients of Vriens and Smeets (V-S) and Drawin (D) are compared with experimental values measured at various positions in a free expanding argon arc jet. Apart from the shock position, where the calculated results are too low, the model calculations are higher than the experimental results. The volumetric recombination coefficient has a T(e)-4.2 and a T(e)-4.8 dependence when semi-empirical rate coefficients of, respectively, V-S and D are used. The differences between the models based on the rate coefficients of V-S and D indicate that the recombination flow is sensitive to the low temperature behavior of the rate coefficients.