Mikhail Benilov – Department of Physics @ UMa

Full Professor Emeritus, Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências Exatas e da Engenharia, Universidade da Madeira, Largo do Município, 9000-082 Funchal, Portugal. Email: benilov at staff.uma.pt

Publications

– Journal Papers
– Publica tions in conference proceedings

Site Interaction of High-Pressure Arc Plasmas with Thermionic Cathodes

Education and Academic Degrees

June 1968 – graduated from the physical-mathematical school in Moscow
June 1974 – graduated from Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology, with Diploma with Honours
Sep. 1977 – completed postgraduate courses at the above Institute and at the Institute for Mechanics of Lomonosov Moscow State University
Nov. 1978 – degree of Candidate of Physical-Mathematical Sciences (Ph.D.) from Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology
June 1990 – degree of Doctor of Physical-Mathematical Sciences (this is an academic degree superior to Ph.D. which is similar, e.g., to Habilitation in Germany or to Doutor Agregado in Portugal) from the High Commission for Certification of the USSR Council of Ministers
Oct. 1997 – degree of Doutor Agregado from Instituto Superior Técnico da Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (Lisbon, Portugal)

Professional Career

1977/1990 – Institute for High Temperatures of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow:
   Oct. 1977 – Senior Engineer
   Jan. 1979 – Junior Scientist
   Apr. 1982 – Senior Scientist
   May 1989 – Leading Scientist
1990/1993 – Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany:
   Nov. 1990 – Research Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
   May 1992 – Research Scientist
1993/ – Universidade da Madeira, Portugal:
   Feb. 1993 – Invited Full Professor
   Nov. 2000 – Full Professor
   Retired in 2021

Scientific Activity

Current research interests: plasma physics, fluid dynamics, computational physics, kinetic theory of gases, nonlinear dissipative structures.
Publications: 172 papers in refereed journals, one review monograph (publications).
Ph. D. theses supervised: 10.
Review and tutorial journal papers:

M. S. Benilov, P. G. C. Almeida, N. G. C. Ferreira, R. M. S. Almeida, and G. V. Naidis, “A practical guide to modeling low-current quasi-stationary gas discharges: Eigenvalue, stationary, and time-dependent solvers”, J. Appl. Phys., vol. 130, 2021.
M. S. Benilov, “Modeling the physics of interaction of high-pressure arcs with their electrodes: advances and challenges”, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., vol. 53, no. 1, pp. 013002, 2020.
M. S. Benilov, “Multiple solutions in the theory of dc glow discharges and cathodic part of arc discharges. Application of these solutions to the modeling of cathode spots and patterns: a review”, Plasma Sources Sci. Technol., vol. 23, no. 5, p. 054019, 2014.
M. S. Benilov, “The Child-Langmuir law and analytical theory of collisionless to collision-dominated sheaths”, Plasma Sources Sci. Technol., vol. 18, no. 1, p. 014005 (14pp), 2009.
M. S. Benilov, “Understanding and modelling plasma-electrode interaction in high-pressure arc discharges: a review”, J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., vol. 41, no. 14, pp. 144001 (30pp), 2008.
M S Benilov, “Theory of electrical probes in flows of high-pressure weakly ionized plasma (review)“, High Temp., vol. 26, no. 5, pp. 780-793, 1988.

Research projects in the last 10 years

Cathode spots in high-pressure DC gas discharges: self-organization phenomena. 2009-2012. Funding: FCT, project PTDC/FIS/68609/2006.
Modelling, understanding, and controlling self-organization phenomena in plasma-electrode interaction in gas discharges: from first principles to applications. 2013-2015. Funding: FCT, project PTDC/FIS-PLA/2708/2012.
Modelling of high-voltage breakdown. 2015-2018. Funding: Siemens AG, Germany.
PlasMa: teoria e simulação avançada de plasmas relevantes para aplicações energéticas. 2019-2022. Funding: European Regional Development Fund through the Operational Program of the Autonomous Region of Madeira 2014–2020, project M1420-01-0145-FEDER-000016.
Modelling of different aspects of vacuum arc physics. Since 2009. Funding: Siemens AG, Germany.
Modelling of arc plasma interaction with electrodes under conditions of low-voltage circuit breakers. Since 2018. Funding: Schneider Electric, France.

Recent invited talks

Spots and patterns on electrodes of gas discharges, 68th Gaseous Electronics Conference/9th International Conference on Reactive Plasmas/33rd Symposium on Plasma Processing, Honolulu, HI, USA, Oct. 2015.
New results in the theory and modelling of sheaths and near-electrode layers in arc discharges, 27th Symposium on Plasma Physics and Technology, Prague, June 2016.
State-of-the-art in the simulation of plasma-electrode interaction in arc discharges, 14th High-Tech Plasma Processes Conference (HTPP 14), Munich, Germany, July 2016.
Theory and modelling of plasma-electrode interaction in switching arcs, 3ème édition du Colloque sur les Arcs Electriques (CAE XIII) et le 3ème Workshop Arcs et Contacts Electriques (ACE 2017), Nancy, France, March 2017.
The Bohm criterion and modelling of sheaths and near-electrode layers in arc discharges, Int. Conf. on Low-Temperature Plasma Physics (FNTP) 2017, Kazan’, RF, June 2017.
Recent advances in the modelling of plasma-electrode interaction and electrode erosion in high- to low-pressure to vacuum arcs, 15th High-Tech Plasma Processes Conference (HTPP 15), Toulouse, France, July 2018.
Recent advances in simulation of plasma-electrode interaction in arc discharges, 22nd Int. Conf. on Gas Discharges and their Applications, Novi Sad, Serbia, Sept. 2018.
Advanced simulation of arc discharges and their electrodes, 71st Annual Gaseous Electronics Conference, Portland, OR, USA, Nov. 2018.
Understanding and modelling spots and patterns on electrodes of gas discharges, Journée thématique on cold plasma, Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse, Toulouse, France, June 2019.
Simple self-consistent computation of ignition voltage of self-sustaining gas discharges, Int. Conf. on Low-Temperature Plasma Physics (FNTP) 2020, Kazan’, RF, Nov. 2020.

Teaching Activity

1980/1984 – lectured at the Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology. Subject: Continuum Mechanics.
1993/ – has lectured at Universidade da Madeira. Subjects: General Physics I – Mechanics, General Physics II – Thermodynamics and Molecular Physics, General Physics III- Electricity and Magnetism, General Physics V – Optics, Quantum Mechanics, Continuum Mechanics, Numerical Methods in Physics, Plasma Physics, Asymptotic Methods in Physics.

Administrative Activities

Participated in the creation of the Department of Physics of Universidade da Madeira. Was the first Chairman of the Department (1996-1998). Has continued to serve as Chairman of the Department of Physics in 2000-2008 and 2011-2016. Served as a member of the General Council of the University of Madeira (2013-2021) and as chairman of the Assembly of the Faculty of Exact Sciences and Engineering of the University of Madeira (2013-2021).

Scientific Societies and Service to Community

Sociedade Portuguesa de Física (member), Institute of Physics UK (Fellow). Has served on the Editorial Board of the international journal Plasma Sources Science and Technology (2004-2016) and International Scientific Committees of European Plasma Conference (HTPP) since 2012 and International Conference on Low-Temperature Plasma Physics since 2014. Has served as session organizer at the IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science (ICOPS) in 2012-2016.

Language Abilities

Russian (first language), Portuguese, English, German.