Progress in Plasma Processing of Materials, 1997

ISBN Print: 1-56700-093-2

MODELLING OF THE RF MULTIFLUX PLASMATRON

DOI: 10.1615/ITPPC-1996.90
pages 69-76

Sinopsis

The multiflux RF water cooled plasma torch operating at 25 kW with a generator of 5 MHz allows us to measure the energy balance of the plasma process. The modifications of each experimental parameter can be responsable for large variations of the properties of the plasma that is to say its energy density and its power induced with a simultaneous modification of the temperature and velocity gradients. Results were obtained for an argon plasma at atmospheric pressure and different electrical potential on the coil (6 kV and 4.4 kV). Considering that the temperature of the inner copper wall stay at 350K by means of the water cooling there is a high radial gradient up to the ring area with an increasing up to 9 700 K when electrical potential is 4.4 kV and rise up to 11 000 K when the electrical potential is 6 kV. The axial component of plasma velocity profils shows that between the entrance and the exit of the torch the gas is accelerated up to 35 m.s−1. These results allow to calculate the velocity and the temperature of the solids particles along their trajectories inside the RF plasma.