arXiv subjects

Wouter Graef

Publications and source records attributed to Wouter Graef.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

MCPlas, a MATLAB toolbox for reproducible plasma modelling with COMSOL

The MCPlas toolbox represents a collection of MATLAB functions for the automated generation of an equation-based fluid-Poisson model for non-thermal plasmas in the multiphysics simulation software COMSOL. Following the development of the new generation of the LXCat platform, all input data are prepared in a structured and interoperable JSON format and can be supplied and validated using existing JSON schemas. The toolbox includes fully transparent, editable MATLAB source code and offers an advanced description of electron transport in addition to commonly used approaches in the plasma modelling community. It supports one-dimensional and two-dimensional modelling geometries employing Cartesian, polar and cylindrical coordinate systems. MCPlas is tested on two reference cases: DC- and RF-driven low-pressure glow discharges in argon. Comparison of MCPlas results with results obtained by employing COMSOL's Plasma Module verifies the reliability of the plasma model implemented by MCPlas and demonstrates the significance of electron transport treatment and boundary conditions applied in the toolbox. Using the same examples, the easy handling of complex reaction kinetic models in MCPlas and the reusability of its JSON input data across different modelling platforms are illustrated. This demonstrates that MCPlas provides a transparent and reproducible workflow for the simulation of non-thermal plasmas using COMSOL.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2015

Evaluation of a measure on the quasi-steady state assumption of Collisional Radiative Models via Intrinsic Low Dimensional Manifold Technique

Collisional and radiative dynamics of a plasma is exposed by so-called Collisional Radiative Models [1] that simplify the chemical kinetics by quasi-steady state assignment on certain types of particles. The assignment is conventionally based on the classification of the plasma species by the ratio of the transport to the local destruction frequencies. We show that the classification is not exact due to the role of the time-dependent local production, and a measure is necessary to confirm the validity of the assignment. The main goal of this study is to evaluate a measure on the quasi-steady state assumptions of these models. Inspired by a chemical reduction technique called Intrinsic Low Dimensional Manifolds [2, 3], an estimate local source is provided at the transport time-scale. This source is a deviation from the quasi-steady state for the particle and its value is assigned as an error of the quasi-steady state assumption. The propagation of this error on the derived quantities is formulated in the Collisional Radiative Models. Based on the error a novel technique is proposed to discriminate the quasi-steady states. The developed analysis is applied to mercury and argon fluorescent lamps separately and the corresponding errors are presented. We observe that the novel and conventional technique agrees for most of the excited levels but disagrees for a few low energy excited states.

physics.plasm-ph↗