Rotation velocities in a high-pressure plasma centrifuge

This work describes a one-dimensional (1-D) steady-state model of the Hartmann boundary layers appropriate to a high-density rotating plasma which is in local thermodynamic equilibrium. The purpose of the model is to predict the performance of high-pressure plasma centrifuges, and approximations appropriate to magnetohydrodynamic plasmas are made. Transport properties are calculated using a chemical equilibrium approximation which should apply at high densities in a plasma centrifuge. As well as rotation in the azimuthal direction, the model shows that there is plasma circulation in the radial direction, arising both from convection of the neutral particles with the ions ("ion wind") and the nonuniform distribution of the centrifugal force in the axial direction (conventional secondary flow). Calculated results have been compared with experimental data from a rotating argon plasma. The agreement is reasonable.