A Study on the Plasma Plume Expansion Dynamics of Nanosecond Laser Ablating Al/PTFE

Sheng Tan, Moge Wang, Jianjun Wu, Yu Zhang and Jian Li
Additional contact information
Sheng Tan: College of Aerospace Science and Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China
Moge Wang: College of Aerospace Science and Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China
Jianjun Wu: College of Aerospace Science and Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China
Yu Zhang: College of Aerospace Science and Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China
Jian Li: College of Aerospace Science and Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 13, 1-24

Abstract: To study the plasma plume expansion dynamics of nanosecond laser ablating Al/PTFE, the Al/PTFE propellant was prepared by a molding sintering method and the rapid expansion process of the plasma plume was photographed using fast photography technology. The effects of the proportion of Al, laser energy and ambient pressure on plasma plume expansion dynamics are analyzed. The results show that the plume expansion process of laser ablating Al/PTFE plasma can be divided into three stages and this phenomenon has not been reported in the literature. The Al powder doped in PTFE will block part of the laser transmission into the propellant, thus reducing the laser absorption depth of the propellant. In the case of short pulse laser ablation, the reaction rate between Al and PTFE is optimal when the reductant is slightly higher than the oxidant. As the laser energy increases, the light intensity of the plasma becomes stronger, the plasma size becomes larger and the existence time of plasma becomes longer. In the first stage plume, the plume expands freely at the ambient pressure of 0.005 Pa and the plume expansion distance is linearly related to time, while the shock wave formed at the interface between the plume front and the ambient gas at the ambient pressure of 5 Pa and the expansion can be described by S-T theory.

Keywords: laser-produced plasma; Al/PTFE; expansion dynamics; three stages expansion process; modified laser-assisted pulsed plasma thruster; fast photography (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/13/3321/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/13/3321/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:13:p:3321-:d:377975

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().