Computer simulation and calculations of the characteristics of a glow discharge in a gas flow
Glow discharge in a gas flow is widely used for the creation of active mediums of powerful molecular gas lasers. In the paper transverse glow discharge in electronegative gas flow was investigated numerically by alternating direction method. Discharge chambers with continuous anode and partitioned cathodes were considered. As a result, two-dimensional distributions of charged particles densities (for electrons, positive and negative ions) and of electric potential inside such chambers were obtained. A system of elliptic equations for charged particles (electrons, positive and negative ions) and for electric potential was solved by iterative alternating direction method in two-dimensional subspace XY. Calculations were carried out for a rectangle which contained 1 mm width lamellate cathodes and continuous anode. The difference grid (100x100) was applied. The boundary conditions for densities of electrons, positive and negative ions and for electric field potential were widely varied with a view to evaluate their influence on the solution. Under given boundary conditions the program elaborated enables to calculate two-dimensional distributions of electric potential and of charged particles densities inside discharge chambers. The calculations showed the strong dependence of these distributions on boundary conditions.