Simulation of High-Power Microwave Air Breakdown Modeled by a Coupled Maxwell–Euler System With a Non-Maxwellian EEDF

Abstract

In this paper, a discontinuous Galerkin time-domain (DGTD) method is developed to simulate high-power microwave air breakdown phenomena, which is modeled by a coupled electromagnetic-plasma system. In the coupled system, the electromagnetic fields are governed by Maxwell's equations and the plasma is modeled by the five-moment fluid equations (Euler's equations). The non-Maxwellian electron energy distribution function is used to calculate electron transport coefficients and describe the nonequilibrium collision reactions between electrons and neutral air particles. The coupled Maxwell-Euler equations are solved by the DGTD method with high-order spatial and temporal discretization, which are able to provide a sufficient resolution for the physical quantities in both space and time. Several numerical examples are presented to investigate the physical process and demonstrate the capability of the numerical method.