The effect of external pressure on the plasma parameters in ablative capillary discharges

The effect of external pressure on the plasma parameters (pressure, density, velocity, temperature, kinetic energy) in an ablative capillary discharge is studied for electrothermal and electrothermal-chemical launchers. A comparison between the plasma parameters in such a situation and those obtained when the pressure outside the capillary is negligibly small was performed. The theoretically predicted results for the electrical characteristics of the discharge were compared to the corresponding experimentally obtained values, and were found to be in good agreement.