NUMERICAL STUDY OF LASER-SUSTAINED HYDROGEN PLASMAS IN A FORCED CONVECTIVE FLOW

A two-dimensional numerical model for laser-sustained argon plasmas, which considers laminar Navier-Stokes equations and real ray tracing for the laser beam, has been extended for forced convective hydrogen plasmas. Realistic thermodynamic, transport, and optical properties of hydrogen were incorporated into the calculations. Parametric studies of inlet gas velocity, static pressure, laser power, and laser beam diameter have been conducted. Calculated plasma size, temperature distribution, flowfield, and energy conversion efficiency are presented in this paper.