A preliminary study of the characteristics of an impact-generated plasma

The characteristics of a plasma generated by hypervelocity impacts were studied in this paper by means of theoretical analysis and numerical simulations. On the basis of the theory of thermodynamics and statistical physics, a model of the thermal ionization for a plasma is presented to examine the relationship between the ionization degree and the temperature of the plasma. The plasma conductivity related to the temperature is obtained by considering the velocity distribution law in the state of heat balance. The temperature of the plasma is derived by establishing a three-dimensional model of a sphere projectile impacting on an Al target. The temperature and density of the plasma obtained from the numerical simulations are put into the model of thermal ionization. The characteristics of the plasma generated by hypervelocity impact are described. Good agreement between the theoretical predictions and the experimental results is obtained, indicating that the model proposed in this paper can be used to predict the properties of the plasma generated by hypervelocity impacts.