Simulation of an inductively coupled RF discharge using fluid moment models

Most of the fluid models for gas discharges are based on the drift-diffusion approximation that neglects the inertial terms of the different species within plasma. However, the drift-diffusion approximation fails at low-pressure, when the ion mean-free-path becomes larger or comparable to the size of the device. In this work, we study the numerical solution of velocity-moment hierarchies. These models contain the inertial terms and solve for higher moments, i.e., mass, momentum, energy, heat flux, etc, for each of the species within plasma, allowing for investigation of non-equilibrium conditions that are beyond the drift-diffusion approximation. We study the transport of plasma in an 1D inductively coupled plasma (ICP) discharge with different moment models. In this presentation, we will discuss the closure of the moment models as well as the numerical resolution of the equations and we will benchmark the solutions of the novel model to kinetic simulations.