Accurate and fast simulation approach of a radiating thermal plasma

To optimize the geometry of a radiating thermal plasma for use as a light source, a simple and still accurate simulation is necessary. A new method has been developed to simulate near to equilibrium plasmas in partial equilibrium, applied for argon in a cascaded arc. Nevertheless this simulation takes non-equilibrium explicitly into account. Extensions for a xenon plasma and for plasmas further from equilibrium are being developed. The simulation method is based on the formulation of the various plasma transport properties in terms of electron density, pressure and two non-equilibrium parameters. The latter two describe the deviation from thermal equilibrium and ionization equilibrium of the ground state. The electron density is a suitable parameter, because the radiative properties depend mainly on the square of the electron density. Simple fits through the curves of transport property against the electron density can be made, which vary only slightly with non-equilibrium assumptions as compared to an LTE plasma. By solving the balance equations using these fits, the plasma behavior can quickly be determined. Comparisons with experimental data and the scaling behavior of a cascaded arc will be presented.