Abstract
In this paper a two-temperature plasma model is established and applied to the injection of cold gases into an atmospheric-pressure, high-intensity argon arc. The required nonequilibrium plasma composition and the non-equilibrium transport properties are also calculated. The results show that the arc becomes constricted at the location of gas injection due to thermal and fluid dynamic effects of the injected cold flow. Enhanced Joule heating in the constricted arc path raises the electron as well as the heavy-particle temperatures. This temperature increase resists, via secondary effects, the penetration of the cold gas into the hot arc core which behaves more or less as a “solid body” as far as the injected flow is concerned. The temperature discrepancy between electrons and heavy particles is most severe at the location of cold flow injection, a finding which may have important consequences on chemical reactions in an arc plasma reactor.
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Chen, D.M., Hsu, K.C. & Pfender, E. Two-temperature modeling of an arc plasma reactor. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 1, 295–314 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00568837
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00568837