Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Modeling on the Momentum and Heat/Mass Transfer Characteristics of an Argon Plasma Jet Issuing into Air Surroundings and Interacting with a Counter-Injected Argon Jet

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Modeling study is performed to reveal the momentum and heat/mass transfer characteristics of a turbulent or laminar plasma reactor consisting of an argon plasma jet issuing into ambient air and interacting with a co-axially counter-injected argon jet. The combined-diffusion-coefficient method and the turbulence-enhanced combined-diffusion-coefficient method are employed to treat the diffusion of argon in the argon–air mixture for the laminar and the turbulent regimes, respectively. Modeling results presented include the streamline, isotherm and argon mass fraction distributions for the cases with different jet-inlet parameters and different distances between the counter-injected jet exit and the plasma torch exit. It is shown that there exists a quench layer with steep temperature gradients inside the reactor; a great amount of ambient air is always entrained into the plasma reactor; and the flow direction of the entrained air, the location and shape of the quench layer are dependent on the momentum flux ratio of the plasma jet to the counter-injected cold gas. Two quite different flow patterns are obtained at higher and lower momentum flux ratios, and thus there exists a critical momentum flux ratio to separate the different flow patterns and to obtain the widest quench layer. There exists a high argon concentration or even ‘air-free’ channel along the reactor axis. No appreciable difference is found between the turbulent and laminar plasma reactors in their overall plasma parameter distributions and the quench layer locations, but the values of the critical momentum flux ratio are somewhat different.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Pfender E (1999) Thermal plasma technology: where do we stand and where are we going? Plasma Chem Plasma Process 19(1):1–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Chen Xi (2009) Heat transfer and fluid flow under thermal plasma conditions, Science Press, Beijing (in Chinese)

  3. Kong P, Lau YC (1990) Plasma synthesis of ceramic powders. Pure Appl Chem 62(9):1809–1816

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Paik S, Chen X, Kong P, Pfender E (1991) Modeling of a counterflow plasma reactor. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 11(2):229–249

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Or TW, Kong PC, Pfender E (1992) Counter-flow liquid injection plasma synthesis of spinel powders. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 12(2):189–201

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Zhang B, Liu B, Renault T, Girshick SL, Zachariah MR (2005) Synthesis of aluminum nanoparticles using DC thermal plasma. In: Mostaghimi J, Coyle T, Pershin VA, Salimi Jazi HR (eds) Proceedings of the 17th International Symposium on Plasma Chemistry (Toronto, Canada, 2005), Paper No. ISPC17-026

  7. Li JG, Ikeda M, Ye RB, Moriyoshi Y, Ishigaki T (2007) Control of particle size and phase formation of TiO2 nanoparticles synthesized in RF induction plasma. J Phys D Appl Phys 40:2348–2353

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Shigeta M, Watanabe T (2008) Two-dimensional analysis of nanoparticle formation in induction thermal plasmas with counterflow cooling. Thin Solid Films 516:4415–4422

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Gonzalez NYM, El Morsli M, Proulx P (2008) Production of nanoparticles in thermal plasmas: a model including evaporation, nucleation, condensation, and fractal aggregation. J Therm Spray Tech 17(4):533–550

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  10. Wu G-Q, Li H-P, Bao C-Y, Chen X (2009) Modeling of heat transfer and flow features of the thermal plasma reactor with counter-flow gas injection. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 52:760–766

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  11. Murphy AB (1993) Diffusion in equilibrium mixture of ionized gases. Phys Rev E 48:3594–3603

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  12. Murphy AB (1996) A comparison of treatments of diffusion in thermal plasmas. J Phys D: Appl Phys 29:1922–1932

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  13. Cheng K, Chen X (2004) Prediction of the entrainment of ambient air into a turbulent argon plasma jet using a turbulence-enhanced combined-diffusion-coefficient method. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 47:5139–5148

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  14. Cheng K, Chen X, Pan WX (2006) Comparison of laminar and turbulent thermal plasma jet characteristics–a modeling study. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 26:211–235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Wang H-X, Chen X, Cheng K, Pan WX (2007) Modeling study on the entrainment of ambient air into subsonic laminar and turbulent argon plasma jets. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 27:141–162

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Wang H-X, Chen X, Pan WX (2008) Effects of the length of a cylindrical solid shield on the entrainment of ambient air into turbulent and laminar impinging argon plasma jets. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 28:85–105

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Li H-P, Chen X (2002) Three-dimensional modeling of the turbulent plasma jet impinging upon a flat plate and with transverse particle and carrier-gas injection. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 22(1):27–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Williamson RL, Fincke JR, Crawford DM, Snyder SC, Swank WD, Haggard DC (2003) Entrainment in high-velocity, high-temperature plasma jets. Part II: computational results and comparison to experiment. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 46:4215–4228

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Launder BE, Spalding DB (1974) The numerical computation of turbulent flows. Comput Methods Appl Mech Eng 3:269–289

    Article  MATH  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Tao WQ (2001) Numerical Heat Transfer, second ed., Xi’an Jiaotong University Press, Xi’an, China (in Chinese)

  21. Patankar SV (1980) Numerical heat transfer and fluid flow. McGraw-Hill, New York Chap. 6

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  22. Murphy AB (1995) Transport coefficients of air, argon-air, nitrogen-air and oxygen-air plasmas. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 15:279–307

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  23. Pan WX, Meng X, Chen X, Wu CK (2006) Experimental study on the thermal argon plasma generation and jet length change characteristics at atmospheric pressure. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 26:335–345

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10772016) and Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education (No. 20070006022). The authors would like to thank Dr. A. B. Murphy who provides us the property tables for the argon-air plasmas.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Astronautics, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 100191, Beijing, China

    Hai-Xing Wang

  2. Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China

    Xi Chen

  3. Department of Engineering Physics, Tsinghua University, 100084, Beijing, China

    He-Ping Li

Authors
  1. Hai-Xing Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Xi Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. He-Ping Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hai-Xing Wang.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wang, HX., Chen, X. & Li, HP. Modeling on the Momentum and Heat/Mass Transfer Characteristics of an Argon Plasma Jet Issuing into Air Surroundings and Interacting with a Counter-Injected Argon Jet. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 31, 373–392 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-011-9288-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-011-9288-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation