Discrete Boltzmann modeling of plasma shock wave

Abstract

Plasma shock waves widely exist and play an important role in high-energy-density environment, especially in the inertial confinement fusion. Due to the large gradient of macroscopic physical quantities and the coupled thermal, electrical, magnetic, and optical phenomena, there exist not only hydrodynamic non-equilibrium (HNE) effects but also strong thermodynamic non-equilibrium (TNE) effects around the wavefront. In this work, a two-dimensional single-fluid discrete Boltzmann model is proposed to investigate the physical structure of ion shock. The electron is assumed inertialess and always in thermodynamic equilibrium. The Rankine–Hugoniot relations for single-fluid theory of plasma shock wave is derived. It is found that the physical structure of shock wave in plasma is significantly different from that in normal fluid and somewhat similar to that of detonation wave from the sense that a peak appears in the front. The non-equilibrium effects around the shock front become stronger with increasing Mach number. The charge of electricity deviates oppositely from neutrality in upstream and downstream of the shock wave. The large inertia of the ions causes them to lag behind, so the wavefront charge is negative and the waverear charge is positive. The variations of HNE and TNE with Mach number are numerically investigated. The characteristics of TNE can be used to distinguish plasma shock wave from detonation wave.