Self-Consistent Modelling of Non-Thermal Atmospheric Argon Plasma During Arc Discharge and Its Interaction with Metal Electrodes

Abstract

Heat transfer processes associated with arc plasmas are important for many industrial applications such as electric propulsion, plasma spray and arc welding. In these applications, an electric arc is used because it offers high energy densities and a controlled environment. However, it is sometimes not realizable or not economic to get the parameters within the high temperature region of plasma precisely by means of experimental measurements. A numerical model that offers reliable description of discharging process is a good choice. Any model of arc plasmas must contain not only the conservation of mass, momentum and energy, but also electromagnetic description that follows Maxwella s equations. Since the last 30 years, intensive researches embarking on nonequilibrium plasmas have led to fruitful achievements, among them NLTE (non-Local Thermal Equilibrium) model plays an important role in numerical modelling due to its superiority over LTE (Local Thermal Equilibrium) model in accounting for the difference of two phase temperatures (heavy species and electrons) that cannot be neglected near electrodes. However, deeper researches meet obstacles when the discharging system needs to be simulated self-consistently as a whole and with as few presumed conditions as possible. On one hand, discharging under high current operation tends to overheat its electrodes leading to melting or evaporating, particles from electrode material that enter the plasma will change its composition and the heat transfer process. On the other hand, therea s still a a mysteriousa region whose physical structure is so different from the main arc plasma region that cannot be accounted by conventional transport equations or theories without any extra treatments for it. This region, sometimes called sheath layer or space-charge layer, plays an important role in bridging the thermal and electric energy of arc column to electrodes. To develop a reasonable model in this region and make it compatible with the two other regions will extend the applicability of CFD model in discharging devices. The motivation of this doctoral thesis is based on my special interest in sheath region, or in other words, my pursuit of developing a self-consistent model that is capable of solving the whole plasma-electrode system. Concerning the complexity of sheath, no secondary physical phenomena such as melting and evaporating are considered in this study. For the main arc region, the plasma composition is calculated based on species conservation equations that consider both diffusion and production/loss activities of particles. And for the sake of high temperature of plasma core, ionization up to third level is applied. In the sheath layer, the effective sheath electrical conductivity is utilized, which is based on the assumption of Childa s collisionless sheath and Lowkea s expression. The ionization degree of plasma sheath plays an important role in this self-consistent method. To validate the model proposed here, several simple benchmark simulations are made and the numerical results concerning temperature, velocity and magnetic field yield satisfactory agreements with experimental or theoretical results. With the model being validated, a D.C. non-transferred plasma torch is studied. The total voltages of both situations are compared with experimental measurements. It shows that the sheath model developed in this scope make the numerical results closer to reality and is responsible for the strong fluctuation of arc jets, which also makes cathode surface temperature fluctuate accordingly. Finally, pros and cons of some new design patterns of plasma torches are discussed, with the multi anode/single cathode type DeltaGun simulated for the comparison of performances with the original type. It reveals that such kind of configuration helps to damp the unwanted arc fluctuation with multiple arc roots. It is also numerically confirmed that when an external coil is added around anode to produce a proper magnetic field, the temperature of anode attachment can be reduced due to enhanced circumferential movement of arc roots by Lorentz force, which lowers the possibility of erosion and promotes a longer lifetime.