Simplified method for calculation of equilibrium plasma composition

In this work, a simplified method for the evaluation of equilibrium composition of plasmas consisted of monoatomic species is proposed. Multicomponent gas systems resulting from thermal ionization of spatially uniform mixtures are assumed enough rarefied to be treated as ideal gases even after multiple ionization steps. The method developed for the calculation of equilibrium composition of these mixtures makes use of the fundamental principles of statistical physics. Equilibrium concentrations of mixture components are determined by integration of distribution functions over the space of momentum and summation over electronic energy levels. These functions correspond to the entropy maximum. To determine unknown parameters, the systems of equations corresponding to the normalization conditions are derived. It is shown that the systems may be reduced to one algebraic equation if the equilibrium temperature is known. Numeral method to solve this equation is proposed. Special attention is given to the ionized mixtures, generated from the atoms of a single chemical species and the situations, when in the gas only the first-or the first- and second-order ionization are possible. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.