2020-943 GENERATION OF PLASMA REPRESENTATIVE OF THOSE SURROUNDING RE-ENTRY VEHICLES

SUMMARY:

UCLA researchers in the Department of Physics and Astronomy have developed an innovative benchtop method to generate plasmas similar to those enveloping aerial vehicles during reentry.

BACKGROUND:

When reentering Earth’s atmosphere at hypersonic speeds, aerial vehicles often lose communication with ground operations. This communication “blackout”, which can last for several minutes, is caused by a high temperature plasma sheath that envelops the vehicle. Efforts have been involved for searching potential solutions. However, it is difficult to test and verify these improved methods as some exotic aspects of this plasma environment are very difficult to reproduce in a laboratory setting.  There is a need to reliably replicate the unique plasma sheath that forms during reentry within a benchtop system for improving communication stability in such extreme condition.

INNOVATION:

Prof. Seth Putterman and his colleagues invented a process that can replicate the unique aspects of the plasma sheath on a tabletop system. This process can not only be scaled, but also be tuned to produce plasmas of various temperatures, densities, collision times, turbulence, and sizes. Moreover, the plasma can be used as a means for plasma confinement to reach high energies and high densities. Institutions that are looking to demonstrate improved communications methods can now verify device performance in a more simulative and tunable plasma environment.

POTENTIAL APPLICATIONS:

• Atmospheric reentry radio communication development/testing
• Tunable plasma generation
• Plasma confinement

ADVANTAGES:

• Being able to replicate reentry plasma sheath on tabletop system
• Plasma production with various temperatures, densities, and sizes
• Being able to tune plasma to variety of collision times and turbulence
• A scalable process

DEVELOPMENT TO DATE:
Reduced to practice in laboratory setting.
 

RELATED PAPERS: (from the inventors only):

• "Convective instability in a stratified ideal gas containing an acoustic field" J. Fluid Mech. (2021), vol. 915, A25, doi:10.1017/jfm.2021.83
• J. Koulakis, S. Pree, and S. Putterman, “Generation and Characterization of Choatic Convection in Collisional Plasma,” IEEE Transactions of Plasma Science, Vol. 48, No. 11, November
• J. P. Koulakis, et. al , “Pycnoclinic acoustic force,” Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, vol. 34, p. 045005, 2018.
• S. Pree, J. Koulakis, A. Thornton, and S. Putterman, “Acousto-convective relaxation oscillation in plasma lamp,” Proceedings of Meetings on Acoustics, vol. 34,p. 045015, 2018.
• J. P. Koulakis, S. Pree, A. L. F. Thornton, and S. Putterman, “Trapping of plasma enabled by pycnoclinic acoustic force,” Physical Review E, vol. 98, no. 4, p. 043103, 2018.