Fundamental Experiment and Numerical Simulation of Pre-ionized Inert Gas Plasma MHD Electrical Power Generation

Abstract

The experiments of pre-ionized inert gas plasma MHD electrical power generation are conducted, and the performance and plasma behavior in the experimental generator are examined through time-dependent r-θ two-dimensional numerical simulation. In the experiment, an enthalpy extraction ratio of 4.01% has been obtained with a disk-shaped MHD generator with radio-frequency pre-ionization. In the numerical simulation, at an assumed inlet electron temperature around 5600K (inlet ionization degree 0.10× 10^-4)∼6600K (1.36× 10^-4), the plasma structure is similar to the non-uniform structure observed in the experiment. An enthalpy extraction ratio around 2∼5% matches well with that in the experiment. At a suitable inlet electron temperature of 7000K (3.15× 10^-4)∼8000K (1.79× 10^-3), although non-uniform plasma structure still occurs, a high enthalpy extraction ratio over 10% is expected.