Bolsig

	BOLSIG
	user-friendly Boltzmann solver from the SIGLO Series

A MORE RECENT AND IMPROVED VERSION OF BOLSIG, BOLSIG+, DEVELOPED BY G. HAGELAAR, CAN BE FOUND ON THE GREPHE/LAPLACE WEBSITE, AT THE ADDRESS: BOLSIG+

BOLSIG is a user friendly code for the numerical solution of the Boltzmann equation for electrons in weakly ionized gases and in steady-state, uniform fields. This code runs on PC's or HP workstations and it is freely available through ftp . BOLSIG is distributed with a library of cross section data in 15 gases, and this may be expanded by the user. This code was especially designed to generate electron and transport data in pure gases or gas mixtures over a wide range of values of E/N in a format directly suitable for use with the SIGLO series of discharge modeling software (it can also be used independently of the SIGLO models).

Input and output in BOLSIG are handled through pop-up menus. The input consists simply of a range of values of E/p and the gas compositions, and these are entered by filling out forms which appear on the screen. The output available through the pop-up menus is in tabular form or in graphical form and includes transport and rate coefficients, fractional energy deposited in different collisional processes, and the electron energy distribution functions.
The main consideration in the choice of the algorithm for BOLSIG was that it be suitable for all conditions with no adjustable model parameters such as the maximum grid energy. The main features of the algorithm in BOLSIG are,
- BOLSIG solves for the electron energy distribution (edf) using the two-term expansion.
- The energy dependence of the edf is expanded in finite elements (cubic B-splines) which allows for a dynamic readjustment of the energy grid with a high accuracy and an arbitrary grid spacing.
- Multiplying the Boltzmann equation successively by each of the B-splines in the expansion set and integrating over energy yields a set of coupled algebraic equations for the coefficients of the B-splines. The resulting matrix of coefficients of the B-splines is easily solved by standard techniques.
- The solution is obtained iteratively usings scattering-in terms (non-local in energy) from the last iteration.
- The changing electron number density due to ionization or attachment is properly taken into account.

Download BOLSIG (freeware)