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Technical Paper

Development of a Self-Consistent Kinetic Plasma Model of Thermionic Energy Converters

1992-08-03
929427
The present work is aimed at developing a computational model of the interelectrode phenomena in thermionic energy converters which will be accurate over a very wide range of plasma conditions and operating modes. Previous models have achieved only moderate degrees of accuracy and, in a limited range, of validity. This limited range excludes a number of advanced thermionic devices, such as barium-cesium converters. The model under development promises improved accuracy in prediction of conventional devices and extension of predictive capability to advanced devices. The approach is to adapt the “Converted Scheme”, or CS method, to the cesium vapor plasma diode. This method, developed at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, is an extremely efficient algorithm for the solution of charged-particle kinetic equations and has been successfully used to simulate helium RF glow discharges.
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