Research in Nonequilibrium Gases and Plasmas

Iain D. Boyd, Associate Professor
Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, U. S. A.

Resume
Newsletter for 1997
Newsletter for 1998

Overview

The research group of Professor Boyd is very active in the development and application of physical models and numerical methods for simulation of nonequilibrium gas flows and plasmas. Current application areas include electric propulsion (small rockets used to control spacecraft), hypersonic aerothermodynamics (flight of spacecraft at high speeds), flows involving very small length scales (MEMS devices), and materials processing (deposition and processing of thin films for semi-conductors). Due to nonequilibrium effects, these flows cannot be computed accurately with the equations of fluid mechanics and plasma physics. Instead, we adopt a microscopic approach in which the molecules in a gas are simulated on the computer by a large number of model particles using sophisticated Monte Carlo methods.

Our research in nonequilibrium gases and plasmas involves development of physical models for the gas systems of interest, development of numerical algorithms on the latest supercomputers, and application to challenging flows in several exciting projects. For example, we are developing new numerical algorithms for large-scale parallel computing platforms such as the IBM SP-2 located in the Cornell Theory Center. We place a great deal of emphasis on comparison of our calculations with external experimental and theoretical results, and have ongoing collaborative studies with several government laboratories and other universities.

Research Projects

Spacecraft Propulsion

  • Electric Propulsion (Hall thrusters, ion thrusters, arcjets, resistojets)
  • Plume Impingement on Spacecraft from Small Rockets

    • Hypersonics & Radiation

  • Spacecraft Glow
  • Thermochemical Nonequilibrium Flow at Hypersonic Speed
  • Radiation from High Altitude Bow Shocks and Missile Plumes

    • Materials Processing

  • Supersonic Molecular Beams for Thin Film Deposition
  • Plasma Etching of Semi-conductors
  • Titanium Deposition

    • MEMS Flows

  • Nano-scale and Micro-scale Fluid Dyanmics 

    • Research Group Members