Abstract :
Summary form only given, as follows. (the LlCA - linearly injected coaxial accelerator) has been developed. The LlCA has been developed for the MTF scheme suggested by Thio et al [I]; namely a plasma gun capable of reproducible results of 0.2mg of high velocity hydrogen plasma at a frequency of 10Hz. The LlCA consists of a coaxial accelerator lOcm in diameter and 30cm in length, with the cathode supported in the centre of the accelerator by four insulated struts, which also serve the purpose of supplying voltage to the cathode. Positioned 40cm behind the coaxial accelerator separated by a skimmer is a high vacuum chamber containing the piezoelectric valve which is aligned with the axis of the plasma accelerator. The density profile of the emitted gas pulse from the piezoelectric valve is known from experimental Mass - spectrometer data as well as the initial velocity of the gas, these are used as initial conditions for the numerical modelling process. The preliminary numerical modelling of the LICA initially concems itself only with modelling the motion of the plasma within the plasma gun, this consists of a finite element model to solve Maxwell??s equations and an ALE model to solve the Magnetohydrodynamic equations. The results of the preliminruy numerical model, the modelling methodology, numerical techniques and a comparison with the experimental results is presented. [I] Y. C. F. Thio, C. E. Knapp, R. C. Kirkpatrick, R. E. Siemon and
