Fundamental experiment and numerical simulation of pre‐ionized inert gas plasma MHD electrical power generation

The experiments of pre‐ionized inert gas plasma MHD electrical power generation are conducted, and the performance and plasma behavior in the experimental generator are examined through time‐dependent r‐_ two‐dimensional numerical simulation. In the experiment, an enthalpy extraction ratio of 4.01% has been obtained with a disk‐shaped MHD generator with radio‐frequency pre‐ionization. In the numerical simulation, at an assumed inlet electron temperature around 5600 K (inlet ionization degree 0:10 × 10−4)_6600 K (1:36 × 10−4), the plasma structure is similar to the non‐uniform structure observed in the experiment. An enthalpy extraction ratio around 2_5% matches well with that in the experiment. At a suitable inlet electron temperature of 7000 K (3:15 × 10−4)_8000 K (1:79 × 10−3), although non‐uniform plasma structure still occurs, a high enthalpy extraction ratio over 10% is expected.