Travelling Waves Solution of the Unsteady Flow Problem of a Rarefied Nonhomogeneous Charged Gas Bounded by an Oscillating Plate

The extension of the previous paper (Abdel Wahid and Elagan, 2012) has been made for a nonhomogeneous charged rarefied gas mixture (two-component plasma) instead of a single electron gas. Therefore, the effect of the positive ion collisions with electrons and with each other is taken into consideration, which was ignored, as an approximation, in the earlier work. Thus, we will have four collision terms (electron-electron, electron-ion, ion-ion, and ion-electron) instead of one term, as was studied before. These collision terms are added together with a completely additional system of differential equations for ions. This study is based on the solution of the Bhatnager-Gross-Krook (BGK) model of the Boltzmann kinetic equation coupled with Maxwell’s equations. The initial-boundary value problem of the Rayleigh flow problem applied to the system of the two-component plasma (positive ions + electrons), bounded by an oscillating plate, is solved. This situation, for the best of my knowledge, is presented from the molecular viewpoint for the first time. For this purpose, the traveling wave solution method is used to get the exact solution of the nonlinear partial differential equations. In addition, the accurate formula of the whole four-collision frequency terms is presented. The distinction and comparisons between the perturbed and the equilibrium velocity distribution functions are illustrated. Definitely, the equilibrium time for electrons and for ions is calculated. The relation between those times and the relaxation time is deduced for both species of the mixture. The ratios between the different contributions of the internal energy changes are predicted via the extended Gibbs equation for both diamagnetic and paramagnetic plasmas. The results are applied to a typical model of laboratory argon plasma.