Rayleigh's problem in collisionless plasmas

Abstract

The initial motion of the unsteady plasma boundary layer flow over an infinite flat plate with heat transfer effects under the influence of an applied magnetic field is studied. Based on a plasma kinetic formulation, small-time exact solutions are derived for the linearized Rayleigh's problem in plasmas consisting of collisionless electrons embedded in immobile ions. Detailed discussions are presented concerning the time-dependent distributions of a number of interesting plasma flow properties, such as number density, velocity component in the direction of plate motion, velocity slip at the plate and skin friction coefficient. The present method of solution seems to be applicable to a large class of plasma boundary layer flow problems in which the interactions between moving plasmas and solid surfaces are important.