Lattice Boltzmann simulation of weakly ionized plasmas and fluid flows using physical properties of fluids

Abstract

In this paper, we present a lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) to simulate weakly ionized plasmas using physical properties for a wide range of electron number densities. To preserve the convection-diffusion characteristics, this method is based on two scaling rules: (1) the physical viscosity is equal to the lattice viscosity, and (2) the characteristic flow velocity due to the external force should not be altered by the scheme. Although this method has been developed for plasma simulation, it can be applied to other fluid-flow problems. In this study, the present method has been applied to driven cavity flow, Poiseuille flow and the plasma diffusion under an external electric field. It has been shown that this method is applicable to a wide range of electron number densities in the simulation of weakly ionized plasmas.