Experimental investigation of the plasma wake of a blunt cone

The flow field of a plasma wake is studied by analysing the saturated ion current of multiple scanning probes with the method of chaos dynamics. The laminated structure of the near-wake is verified. It is observed at x > 250 mm (x is the axis along the flow, held) that the far-wake flow field is similar to the free flow field, and turbulent structure exists in the near-wake, but there is no turbulence in the far-wake. The spatially intermittent character of the flow field can be discovered, which seems to produce some relationship between the spatially intermittent character and the turbulence. The results show that the analytic method of chaos dynamics is sensitive to a non-periodic signal.