Theory and modelling of the interaction of two parallel supersonic plasma jets

The objective of the present work is to predict the profile of the shock front formed by the interaction of two parallel diverging supersonic plasma jets. The form of the front is determined by the divergence of the plasma jets and by the distance between their sources, but the maximum angle of the front inclination at the head point of the shock wave is determined by the plasma properties only. The streamlines of the two plasma jets are diverging before the front and are parallel behind it. The diffusion of the ions flying from two different sources was calculated numerically up to a distance of 10 times the source separation in the region bounded by two symmetric shock fronts. For an ion temperature of K, a jet velocity of , and initial densities of and (corresponding to a Mach number of 10 and Knudsen numbers of 0.04 and 0.4 respectively) the partial and total density distribution in the diffusion zone was found. The ion distribution is not homogeneous in all of investigated regions. The most homogeneous distribution was obtained with an initial density of . The shock model predictions were compared with a free expansion model, and the densities are radically different.