The Influence of Turbulence on Characteristics of a Hybrid-Stabilized Argon-Water Electric Arc

Abstract

The paper presents numerical simulations of the discharge and near outlet regions of the hybrid-stabilized argon-water electric arc. Calculations were carried out for the assumption of laminar and turbulent plasma flow models, respectively. Results of calculations for currents 300-600 A show that the influence of turbulence is weak and the maximum difference for all the monitored physical quantities is less than 10%. Comparison with available experiments exhibits good agreement.

Modeling of inhomogeneous mixing of plasma species in argon–steam arc discharge

“…Two radiation models have been employed in our former calculations, the net emission coefficient and partial characteristics methods [51][52][53][54][55], as well as the large-eddy-simulation (LES) turbulent model [56][57][58] to check possible deviations from the laminar flow assumption. The results of the simulations confirmed, apart from the other results, a negligible effect of the tangential motion of plasma on the overall arc performance [59,60], existence of transition to supersonic flow regime at the plasma jet near the outlet nozzle orifice for currents higher than 400 A [61][62][63][64], and a quasi-laminar plasma flow structure in the discharge chamber and near the exit nozzle [57,58,65]. Comparison with available experimental data showed very good agreement for the radial temperature profiles and satisfactory agreement for the radial velocity profiles [63,64].…”

“…Since we cannot directly observe the arc discharge in the chamber, it is unclear if argon and steam plasma species are mixed fully, partially, or if they are even demixed. In the discharge, temper atures are very high, the plasma flow is quasi-laminar [57,58,65] with steep radial gradients of temperature, particle number density, and velocity, so that significant diffusion of species can be expected. In the present study we investigate the effect of the mixing of argon, oxygen, and hydrogen plasma species on the thermal and fluid-dynamic properties of the hybrid-stabilized argonsteam electric arc.…”

Modeling of argon–steam thermal plasma flow for abatement of fluorinated compounds

“…A study of the flow in relation to the thermal and current-voltage characteristics has been carried out, including power losses for the range of currents 300-600 A at mass flow rates from 22 to 40 standard liters per minute (slm) [36]. For the radiation model, both the net emission coefficient method and the partial characteristic method [37][38][39][40] were used, while deviations from laminar flow were studied using the large-eddy-simulation (LES) turbulent model [41][42][43]. The numerical model showed the following findings: the tangential motion of the plasma affects the overall arc power and physical quantities only to a negligible extent [44,45]; at currents higher than 400 A, the plasma flow transits into the supersonic regime in the region close to the nozzle orifice [46][47][48]; the plasma flow exhibits the quasi-laminar structure close the nozzle orifice [42,43,49]; and, finally, at currents ranging from 150 to 600 A, steam and argon species are mixed together inhomogeneously in the discharge area nearby the nozzle orifice [50,51].…”