Three-dimensional simulation of a plasma jet with transverse particle and carrier gas injection

In the present paper, three-dimensional modeling results are presented concerning the turbulent thermal plasma jet with transversely injected carrier gas and metal particles at atmospheric pressure. The standard K-epsilon model is employed for the numerical simulation of the turbulent plasma flow in coupling with the variable-property continuity, momentum and energy equations. For predicting the motion of the injected particles in the turbulent flow field, an improved particle stochastic-trajectory model is adopted in the calculation. The heating histories of the injected particles are also calculated in their moving processes. The modeling results show that including the effect of carrier gas on jet and particle behavior is very important. The plasma jet is deflected from its geometrical axis due to the transverse injection of carrier gas, and the particle trajectories are also appreciably changed by the carrier gas injection. The particles disperse around their average trajectories in the turbulent flow field. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.