ANALYSIS OF THE PHYSICAL PROCESSES IN A THERMIONIC ENERGY CONVERTER

An investigation of the working state of the ignition type thermionie energy con-verter (TEC) is carried out and a physical model is established for analysis and calcu-lation. The region between the positive and the negative electrodes is divided into five sub-regions: Positive and negative sheathes, positive and negative transition sub-regions and a neutral plasma sub-region. An analytical study of the ionization mechanism in the TEC, a calculation of voltage-current characteristic and the distribution of plasma parameters between electrodes are described from a physical point of view. It is shown that ionization in the TEC is mainly determined by the step-type ionization. Plasma parameteres are characterized by means of the one-dimensional electron flow and ion flow transport equation, the continuity equation and the energy transfer equation, while the complicated transition regions near the electrodes are considered as boundary conditions as an approximation. The theoretical analysis and numerical calculations indicate that this analytical method is applicable.