Self-Consistent Establishment of the Bohm Criterion in Two-Ion-Species Plasmas Based on the Anisotropic-Ion-Pressure Plasma Fluid Scheme

Abstract

The Bohm criterion for two-ion-species plasmas in a scrape-off layer–divertor system is investigated using the anisotropic-ion-pressure plasma fluid scheme and the virtual divertor model, which does not require the boundary condition of the incident flow speed at a divertor target. The flow velocities of the two ion species at the target obtained from our fluid simulations agree well with those obtained from earlier particle-in-cell simulations for both collisionless and collisional cases. The so-called Bohm criterion can be self-consistently established without direct treatment of the sheath region. Examining the time evolution of the flow velocity at the target, we infer that the Bohm criterion is not related to sheath potential formation but is the stability condition for an equilibrium solution of the quasi-neutral plasma region.