Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 18, 2026

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
Published on: December 4, 2017
Why the local-mean-energy approximation should be used in hydrodynamic plasma descriptions instead of the local-field
G K Grubert1, M M Becker, D Loffhagen
1INP Greifswald, Felix-Hausdorff-Str 2, 17489 Greifswald, Germany.
Abstract:
The local-mean-energy approximation (LMEA) and the local-field approximation (LFA) are commonly applied to include the electron properties like transport and rate coefficients into a hydrodynamic description of gas discharge plasmas. Both the approaches base on the solution of the stationary spatially homogeneous Boltzmann equation for the electron component, but the consequences of these approaches differ drastically. These consequences of using both the approaches are studied and discussed on a kinetic level and by comparison of results of hydrodynamic investigations of low-pressure glow discharge plasmas. It is found that the LMEA is to be strongly recommended for the application to a hydrodynamic description of dc as well as rf discharge plasmas, while the LFA is conditionally suitable to describe dc glow discharges with rough reaction kinetics only and its application to rf discharge plasmas is inappropriate.
Related Concept Videos
Diamagnetic Shielding of Nuclei: Local Diamagnetic Current
Electric Field of a Non Uniformly Charged Sphere
Consider a non-uniformly charged sphere, for which the density of charge depends only on the distance from a point in space and not on the direction. Such a sphere has a spherically symmetrical charge distribution. Here, the electric...
Energy Conservation and Bernoulli's Equation
All the terms in the equation have the dimension of energy per unit volume. The kinetic energy per unit volume is called the kinetic energy density, and the potential energy per unit volume is...
Electromagnetic Fields
However, the observation of Gauss's...
Energy Associated With a Charge Distribution
Induced Electric Fields: Applications
