A computer simulation of a thermal plasma that utilizes a detailed line-by-line radiative analysis coupled to a flow and temperature-field analysis has been written. The radiative transport portion of the model uses the S-N discrete ordinates method and the required spectral radiative properties are calculated from basic atomic data. The flow and temperature-field portion of the calculation is handled using the finite-volume method. The thermal plasma configuration studied using this coupled model is a two-dimensional, axisymmetric, 200 A, 1 cm long, free-burning arc located in a one-atmosphere argon environment. Results from this analysis are compared with those from an uncoupled, line-by-line radiative analysis of this same arc and from a flow and temperature-field analysis that utilizes net emission coefficients to model the radiative source term. As thought, noticeable differences are found between results from the coupled and uncoupled analyses. This work proves that it is feasible to conduct two-dimensional, coupled, line-by-line calculations in a thermal plasma, but the computational times are large.
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