Time dependent simulation of the plasma discharge in an electrothermal launcher

The authors have attempted to obtain information on the source plasma component of the electrothermal launcher by extending their previous model to include a momentum balance equation. A zero-dimensional time-dependent code and its application to simulation of the electrothermal launcher are given. The properties of the plasma are evaluated self-consistently with models for electrical resistivity, the ablation process, and ionization of the plasma for the plasma source component of electrothermal launchers. This is necessary in order to model the higher energies, larger source volumes, and pressure oscillations present in electrothermal chemical launchers. The code developed for this purpose is benchmarked against another theoretical analysis that is steady state in nature. A scaling law for the vapor shielding process is derived from the benchmark case, and is used for analysis of the desired time-dependent problem. The results are presented for two experimental cases of interest