Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
2, 1993
Numerical Simulations of Argon Plasma Jets Flowing into Cold Air C. H. C h a n g ~ a n d J. D. Ramshaw ~
Received April 30, 1992; revised August 28, 1992
Computational results and comparisons with experimental data are presented./~r simulations ~f axisymmetric turbulent argon plasma jets flowing into a cold air environment. The calculations were perlormed using the t .~~ .~ code [J. D. Ramshaw and C. H. Chang, Plasma Chem. Plasma Process. 12, 299 (1992)], and were designed to simulate experiments pe~l~rmed by Brossa and t~ender [Plasma Chem. Plasma Process. 8, 75 (1988)] (BP) and by Fincke et al [private communication, 1992} (FSH). To our knowledge, these are the first such simulations m which multicomponent diffusion and interactions between dissociation and ionization ~l diflerent species are consistently accounted for. Turbulence eO'ects were represented by a standard k-e model, both with and without an axisymmetric jet correction term and l~Jr several d(O-erent choices ~/the turbulent Prandtl and Schmidt numbers Pr, and Sq. Simulations were perlormed .for one FSH experiment and two BP experiments at diO-erent values ~f torch power P and argon flow rate W. The Pillow pr~/iles in the FSH simulations were adjusted to match P, W, and the experimental data slightly downstream of the torch exit as closely as possible. The same pr~lile shapes were then used to match P and W l~)r the BP simulations, for which data near the torch exit were not available. Swirl was neglected except in one ~l'the FSbt calculations, where it was./bund to have negligible effect, as expected. Best results were obtained with the axisymmetricjet correction term omitted and with Prt = Sq = O.7. Agreement with the experimental data was then l?lir overall, but still showed systematic deviations and cannot be regarded as Jully satis/hctoo'. Possible reasons for the discrepancies are discussed.
I. I N T R O D U C T I O N
A c o m p r e h e n s i v e c o m p u t a t i o n a l model for thermal p l a s m a processes was recently described. '~' The model is e m b o d i e d in a new c o m p u t e r code called LAVA, which was previously used to simulate an axisymmetric argon plasma jet flowing into cold argon. ' ~ O u r p u r p o s e here is to apply the 1Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, EG&G Idaho, Inc., P.O. Box 1625, Idaho Falls, Idaho 83415.
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0~.41~4 ~l] (11~1111.11]~9S117 I111 11 i I~)tl~ P[cgu[11 P t l h h ~ h l l l ~ [ UfporAlhlll
190
Chang and R a m s h a w
model to the more difficult but also more interesting situation of an axisymmetric argon plasma jet flowing into cold air. This situation has been studied experimentally by Brossa and Pfender'-" (BP) using a METCO torch, and by Fincke e t al. ' ~ (FSH) here at I N E L using a Miller SG-100 torch. Experimental temperature and concentration data were obtained for several different values of torch power and argon flow rate. In the present paper we report the results of two-dimensional kAVAsimulations and comparisons with experimental data for one of the FSH experiments and two of the BP experiments. The presence of air greatly complicates the problem because multiple species and chemical reactions must now be taken into account. The relevant chemical reactions consist of the dissociation of molecular nitrogen and oxygen and the ionization of atomic nitrogen, oxygen, and argon. The problem therefore provides a nontrivial application of the general LAVA algorithms for multicomponent diffusion and multiple chemical reactions. '~' The latter algorithm automatically represents interactions between the various dissociation and ionization reactions, such as the suppression of argon ionization due to electrons produced by ionization of air species. Ionization processes are both highly energetic and strongly temperaturedependent, so such interaction effects are clearly important. To our knowledge, the present simulations are the first in which these effects have been treated in a fully self-consistent manner. Previous simulations of the BP experiments by Chyou and Pfender ~4' and by Dilawari e t al. ~5~ appear to have been based on simple mixture approximations in which such interactions are neglected. The plasma flow in these experiments is highly turbulent. In addition to velocity and temperature profiles, turbulence profiles at the torch exit are required as inflow boundary conditions for the simulations. Unfortunately, these profiles are very difficult to obtain experimentally, and they were not measured by BP or FSH. This situation is rather typical in simulations of this type; complete experimental characterization of the boundary conditions is rarely feasible, and it is necessary to make reasonable assumptions about the missing information in order to proceed. The manner in which this was done in the present simulations is described in Section 2. In such situations one hopes that the results are relatively insensitive to these assumptions, but this is not always the case. ''~ This is one reason why simulations of this type are not yet fully predictive, and must be performed in close conjunction with experiments to be useful. The purpose of the simulations is therefore not to eliminate experiments but rather to reduce their number and cost to a minimum, and to provide physical insight by resolving details and flow features that are experimentally inaccessible.
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There is also uncertainty as to boundary conditions associated with swirl at the nozzle exit. In plasma torches of the type used by BP and FSH, swirl is intentionally imparted to the flow by introducing the argon into the torch through tangentially oriented inflow ports. The degree to which the swirl survives at the torch exit is not precisely known, but a study by Spores and Pfender '7' suggests that it is likely to be too small to significantly influence the flow in the plasma plume. To confirm this, we performed one of the FSH simulations both with and without swirl, using a small swirl number consistent with the results of Spores and Pfender. As expected, the results of the two calculations were essentially indistinguishable, so swirl was simply neglected in all the other simulations. There are of course other areas of uncertainty in such simulations, of which the turbulence model itself is perhaps the most serious. Even in simple incompressible flows, existing turbulence models are hardly satisfactory, and their application to thermal plasmas must be regarded as speculative. In the absence of a viable alternative, however, the usual practice has been to employ such models on a provisional basis. We use a conventional k-e model ~ in the present simulations. Unfortunately, such models have particular difficulties in dealing with axisymmetric and swirling jets, for which they frequently employ ad hoc correction terms. ''''~ ~"~ The present simulations were performed both with and without use of a standard axisymmetric jet correction term. ~~'~' In all cases we obtain better agreement with the data when this term is omitted. However, this is of doubtful significance with regard to the correction term itself; it more likely reflects a partial cancellation with other deficiencies in the turbulence model. The paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 we describe how the LAVA model was specialized to simulate the BP and FSH experiments. This discussion includes detailed descriptions of the species and chemical reactions that were included in the calculations, the turbulence model, the inflow profiles and other boundary conditions, and the computational region and mesh. The calculations themselves and their comparisons with experimental data are presented in Section 3. Discussion and concluding remarks are given in Section 4. 2. E X P E R I M E N T A L AND C O M P U T A T I O N A L S P E C I F I C A T I O N S
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Table I. Torch Operating Conditions Experiment/ investigators Flow rate (sI/min) Current (A) Voltage (V) Efficiency Net torch power (kW) 4.44 8.40 12.1
using an enthalpy probe, while concentrations were determined by a zirconia cell oxygen analyzer, as described in Ref. 2. The values o f argon flow rate and net torch power for the three experiments that were simulated are given in Table I. (Data for each o f these experiments actually represents an average over several repetitions. ~-~'3') The Mach n u m b e r is low and our interest is limited to steady-state results, so all calculations were performed using the steady-state acceleration method.' ~,~7, The geometry is shown in Fig. 1. The inside radius o f the torch nozzle at the exit is R, = 4 mm for both BP and FSH. The outside radius of the torch tip is R,,= 1.189 cm for BP and 3 . 3 3 4 c m for FSH. The geometry is axisymmetric, so the simulations were performed in two-dimensional cylindrical coordinates. The radial coordinate is x and the axial coordinate is r. The calculational region is 7 cm radially by 18 cm axially, and is subdivided by a n o n u n i f o r m 23 x 3 0 c o m p u t a t i o n a l mesh as s h o w n in Fig. 1. The left b o u n d a r y is the symmetry axis, the bottom b o u n d a r y is the nozzle exit plane, and the flow is upward. The torch tip portion o f the bottom b o u n d a r y is treated as a solid wall. The remainder o f the b o t t o m boundary, as well as the top and right boundaries, are open. The wall temperature along the torch tip is not known, and was simply a s s u m e d to vary from 700 K at x = R, to 300 K at x = R,, according to the formula ~ ' r = 700 - 400 In (x/R,) In ( R,,/ Ri) (K) ( 1)
2.2. Turbulence The effects of turbulence were m o d e l e d using the basic k-e model described in Ref. 1. In the present context, however, it is not obvious which variant of this model should be used. The plasma flow in the BP and FSH experiments is axisymmetric, and it is well k n o w n that the conventional k-e model is unable to model both planar and axisymmetric jets with the same set o f model constants. Constants that p r o d u c e g o o d results for the planar jet overpredict the spreading rate o f the axisymmetric jet by about 35%. ~s'""
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symme 18 cm
YT,
inflo torch wall(_.,
V----openboundary
rch walI(FSH) Fig. l. Calculation domain and computational mesh.
To remove this discrepancy, various axisymmetric correction terms have been p r o p o s e d to reduce the turbulent diffusivity and spreading rate of the jet. 1~'131 A similar difficulty occurs for swirling vs. nonswirling jets. Models calibrated for the nonswirling jet tend to underpredict the spreading rate for the swirling jet, ~6'~"~ and various swirl correction terms have been p r o p o s e d to correct this deficiency. ~~4-~6~This situation is clearly unsatisfactory, but in spite of a great deal of etiort it remains unresolved. No consensus has yet emerged as to the proper way to simulate either swirling or unswirling
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axisymmetric jets with turbulence models of the k-e type. Perhaps for this reason, previous simulations o f the BP experiments ~4"5' a p p e a r to have been performed with no axisymmetric corrections. As described in Section 3, the present simulations have been performed both with and without use of the standard Rodi correction, '~'lt' implemented as described in Ref. 1. The values o f the various k-e model constants and parameters were the same as in Ref. 1. These values are standard, except that we use Pr, = Sc, = 0.7' ~""' instead of the more conventional values Pr, = Sc, -- 0.9. Limited experiments were also performed with Pr, =0.7, Sc, =0.5, as described in Section 3. 2.3. Species and Chemical Reactions In addition to argon ionization, it is necessary to represent both dissociation and ionization o f air species. The following chemical species were therefore included in the calculations: Ar, A r ' , e , N : , N, N ' , O:, O, and O ~. The specific heats of atomic and ionized species were obtained from partition functions, '~'2-~' while the specific internal energies o f N, and 02 as functions o f temperature were obtained from the J A N A F tables, ~e3' linearly extrapolated b e y o n d 5000 K. The different species interact by means of chemical reactions representing the relevant dissociation and ionization processes, namely Ar ~ A r ' + e , N , ~ - 2 N , O e ~ 2 0 , N~-~N ~ + e , a n d O ~ O ~ + e . The rates for these reactions are a s s u m e d to be sufficiently fast that the reactions remain close to equilibrium, so they were represented as equilibrium chemical reactions in the model. 't' The equilibrium constants for the dissociation reactions were obtained from the functional fits of Olikara and Borman, ~2a' while those for the ionization reactions were obtained from the Saha equation, ~-~5' with the partition functions a p p r o x i m a t e d by temperature-independent effective ground-level degeneracy factors. ~>~ The formation of nitrogen oxides was neglected. 2.4. Transport Properties Effective binary diffusivities for the different species were calculated by means o f the simple approximate f o r m u l -'~' I +
=
I ~1,2 T~-~
(2)
where M~ is the molecular weight of species k, AT/k is the local mean molecular weight of the plasma exclusive of species k, T is the temperature, p is the pressure, and rh, is a constant. In the present calculations we set
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r/,, = 200 g3.'2 cm s ~ K s/2 mole ~/2, which is a compromise value based on binary and self-diffusion coefficients for N_,, 02, and Ar at 3500 K. The laminar (molecular) viscosity and thermal conductivity of the mixture were obtained by interpolation, based on the local argon mole fraction, between the tabulated property values of pure argon and air plasmas as functions of temperatureJ 27' (The so-called reaction contribution to the thermal conductivity '2~' was not included, as it is an indirect effect of species diffusion which is automatically accounted for in the present model.) This rather arbitrary procedure is of course only approximate. The resulting mixture transport coefficients are probably reasonable, but they are unlikely to be highly accurate. Since the present calculations are turbulent, however, these laminar coefficients are small compared to the corresponding turbulent ones, so the calculation as a whole should be relatively insensitive to their precise values.
T,,
(4)
where T,,. = 700 K, and the parameters v,,, T,,, n, and m were selected to match the known values of W and P as closely as possible, using the relations given in Eqs. (51) and (52) of Ref. 1. The resulting parameter values for the FSH and BP experiments are given in Table If. The species density profiles are then obtained from the temperature profile by assuming ionization equilibrium and charge neutrality at the ambient pressure. The radial velocity at the inflow was simply assumed to be zero.
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5 5 2
3 3 9
As indicated above, one of the FSH s i m u l a t i o n s was performed with swirl. For this s i m u l a t i o n , the radial profile of the swirl velocity w at v = 0 was a s s u m e d to have the qualitatively r e a s o n a b l e form
(5)
S =
(6)
For given S a n d given velocity a n d density profiles, w,, is simply d e t e r m i n e d by c o m b i n i n g Eqs. (5) and (6) a n d solving for w,. The swirl n u m b e r for this s i m u l a t i o n was taken to be S = 0 . 0 5 5 , resulting in a value of w , / v , of the same order as that m e a s u r e d by Spores a n d P f e n d e ? 7' u n d e r similar circumstances. The presence of swirl implies small radial pressure gradients at the inflow, with c o r r e s p o n d i n g small shifts in the degree of argon ionization, which in turn interact with p(x), v(x), P, a n d W. Self-consistent values for all of these variables were o b t a i n e d by an iterative procedure, as described in the Appendix. The t u r b u l e n t kinetic energy profile at v = 0 was a s s u m e d to have the form
k( x ) = [akv( R, - x ) ] 2
(7)
where ak is a constant. This profile has no theoretical basis, but exhibits the same qualitative behavior as that o b t a i n e d in k-e c a l c u l a t i o n s of internal t u r b u l e n t flows. ~2'~ Two different values for ak were used. Most of the s i m u l a t i o n s were performed with ak = 0.1, but one of the FSH s i m u l a t i o n s was performed with ak = 0.3 for c o m p a r i s o n purposes. The dissipation rate profile was o b t a i n e d from the t u r b u l e n t kinetic energy profile by the prescription of Leschziner a n d Rodi, t6~ as described in Ref. 1.
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The calculations were initialized by filling the calculational region with quiescent ambient cold air, which is then displaced by and mixes with the incoming argon plasma until steady state is reached. The final steady solution is assumed to be unique and independent of the initial conditions and transient history; otherwise the steady-state acceleration method could not be used) ~v'
2.7. Radiation Heat Loss
Radiation heat loss was represented as a volumetric sink term in the thermal internal energy equation, as described in Ref. 1. This term was approximated by interpolating between the corresponding terms for pure argon and air plasmas ~3"'3~ based on the local mole fraction of argon. 3. C O M P U T A T I O N A L RESULTS AND C O M P A R I S O N S WITH EXPERIMENT
3.1. The Fincke-Swank-Haggard Experiment
Our baseline simulation of the FSH experiment was performed with the cylindrical k-e correction term turned on, no swirl, Pr, = Sc, = 0.7, and a~ = 0.1. The resulting steady-state velocity vectors are shown in Fig. 2, and the temperature, argon cold mole fraction, and turbulent kinetic energy fields are shown in Figs. 3-5. The argon cold mole fraction is given by [Ar]+[Ar*] x~,r- [Ar] + jAr+] + {Nz] + [O2] +({N] + {N+] + [O] + [O+] ) (8)
where iX] is the molar concentration of species X in the plasma. This is the argon mole fraction measured experimentally by sampling the plasma and cooling it to room temperature at constant elemental composition. Figures 6 and 7 show comparisons of the calculated radial temperature and argon cold mole fraction profiles (on the right) with the experimental data (on the left) at six axial locations. We remind the reader that the inflow profiles were adjusted to maximize agreement with the data at y = 2 mm downstream from the torch nozzle exit. The calculated results for both temperature and argon cold mole fraction are quite good down to about v = 2 0 m m but are considerably less diffusive than the experimental data farther downstream. One possible reason for the insufficient diffusion is that inflow turbulent kinetic energies may be higher than assumed, possibly because of the
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additional generation of turbulent kinetic energy by swirl decay inside the nozzle. We therefore repeated the calculation with ak = 0.3, which intuitively seems a very large value. Overall agreement of the c o m p u t e d temperatures and argon concentrations with the data was thereby somewhat improved but was still unsatisfactory~ the calculated results now show too much diffusion upstream and too little di~usion downstream, To examine the sensitivity to Sc,, we repeated the baseline calculation with ak =0.1 again but with Pr, =0.7 and Sc,--0.5. The lower value o f Sc, corresponds to an e n h a n c e m e n t of species dil~usion relative to thermal conduction, which is consistent with the experimental results of O ' C o n n o r et al. for dissociated nitrogen jets discharging into ambient air. '~-~' There was perhaps a slight further i m p r o v e m e n t in the agreement, but the calculation still shows too much diffusion upstream and too little downstream. Finally, we repeated the baseline calculation with Pr, = Sc, = 0.7 and ak = 0.1, but with the cylindrical jet correction term omitted. As discussed
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TEMPERATURE FSH b a s e l i n e
15000
~0000 5000
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Fig. 3. Temperature field for FSH baseline calculation. The high contour value is 11,000 K, the low value is 1000 K, and the interval between contours is 1000 K.
1.2
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OB
00
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Fig. 4. Argon cold mole fraction for FSH baseline calculation. The high contour value is 0.9, the low value is 0.1, and the interval between contours is 0.1.
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r-,
9.
c~
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Fig. 5. T u r b u l e n t kinetic energy for FSH b a s e l i n e calculation. The high c o n t o u r value is 2 . 4 x 1 0 8 c m 2 / s 2, the low value is 2 1 0 7 c m 2 / s 2, and the interval between c o n t o u r s is 2 l07 cm2/s 2.
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Fig. 7. C o m p a r i s o n o f c a l c u l a t e d a n d e x p e r i m e n t a l r a d i a l profiles o f a r g o n c o l d m o l e f r a c t i o n f o r F S H b a s e l i n e c a l c u l a t i o n with Pr: = S c , = 0 . 7 , ak = 0 . 1 .
in the preceding section, this would be expected to increase the jet spreading rate and the diffusion of the temperature and concentration fields. The resulting comparisons are shown in Figs. 8 and 9. The overall agreement is fairly good and the best yet obtained, but to a lesser degree the calculations still systematically show too much diffusion upstream and too little downstream. To test the effects of swirl, this same calculation was repeated with
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S = 0 . 0 5 5 as described in the previous section. As expected, this had no significant effect; the results were visually i n d i s t i n g u i s h a b l e from those in Figs. 8 and 9. It therefore appears that the discrepancies are not due to swirl effects, unless swirl n u m b e r s greatly exceed those expected from the work of Spores and P f e n d e r ) 7' The same calculation was also repeated with S = 0 a n d Sc, = 0.5 instead of 0.7. This made the agreement better in some places but worse in others, with no a p p a r e n t i m p r o v e m e n t overall.
3.2. The B r o s s a - P f e n d e r Experiments
The s i m u l a t i o n s for both BP experiments were performed with the cylindrical k-F correction term turned off, no swirl, P r , = S c , = 0 . 7 , a n d a~ = 0.1, ,just as in the best FSH simulation. C o m p a r i s o n s of the resulting calculated t e m p e r a t u r e s and argon c o n c e n t r a t i o n s with the experimental data for the BP-1 e x p e r i m e n t are shown in Figs. 10 and 11, and for the BP-2 e x p e r i m e n t in Figs. 12 and 13. The overall agreement is similar to that o b t a i n e d in previous s i m u l a t i o n s , '4'5' but in both cases it is somewhat unsatisfactory. Data near the nozzle exit are not available for these experiments, but farther d o w n s t r e a m the c o m p u t e d results again show too little diffusion relative to the data, just as in the FSH comparisons. 4. D I S C U S S I O N AND C O N C L U D I N G R E M A R K S We have s i m u l a t e d three different experiments by two different experimental groups on argon plasma jets discharging into cold air. To our
203
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Radial D i s t a n c e (cm) Fig. I0. C o m p a r i s o n o f c a l c u l a t e d a n d e x p e r i m e n t a l radial t e m p e r a t u r e profiles for BP-1 c a l c u l a t i o n with Pr, = Sc, = 0.7, ak = 0.1, no k-e c o r r e c t i o n .
knowledge, these simulations are the first in which multicomponent diffusion and multiple chemical reactions, including interactions between different ionization reactions, have been treated in a general and fully self-consistent manner. The calculations therefore automatically capture a variety of important effects that have previously been neglected. For example, nitrogen and oxygen diffuse differently due to their different molecular weights and
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Radial D i s t a n c e ( c m ) Fig. ! I. C o m p a r i s o n o f c a l c u l a t e d a n d e x p e r i m e n t a l radial profiles o f a r g o n cold mole fraction for BP-I c a l c u l a t i o n with Pr, = Sc, = 0 . 7 , a k = 0 . 1 , no k-e correction.
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degrees of dissociation, leading to nitrogen-oxygen ratios in the plasma different from that of the ambient air. In addition, electrons produced by ionization of air species will tend to suppress argon ionization, and vice versa. If desired, the quantitative importance of such effects can readily be assessed by further postprocessing and plotting the computational results.
1.2 1.0
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20 m m 25 m m 30 m m 35 m m 40mm 45 nun 20 m m 25 m m 30 m m 35 m m 40 m m 45 m m
0.0 -1.5
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0.0
Distance
0.5
(cm)
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Fig. 13. C o m p a r i s o n o f c a l c u l a t e d a n d e x p e r i m e n t a l radial profiles o f a r g o n cold mole fraction for BP-2 c a l c u l a t i o n with Pr, = Sc, = 0 . 7 , ak = 0 . 1 , no k-e c o r r e c t i o n .
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In future work we intend to perform more detailed studies of such effects in situations for which corresponding experimental data are available, such as A r - H e demixing in an A r - H e plasma jet discharging into airJ ~3~ The present simulations were performed using different combinations of certain parameters whose true values are not precisely known, primarily those associated with the turbulence model. Best results were obtained with the cylindrical k-e correction term turned off, Pr, = Sc, = 0.7, and ak = 0.1. Agreement of the computations with the experimental data was then fair overall, but still showed systematic deviations and cannot be regarded as fully satisfactory. The computed results tend to be too diffusive upstream and not diffusive enough downstream. To conclusively identify the reasons for these discrepancies will require further research. Possible causes for the discrepancies include inadequacies in the turbulence model, uncertainties in the inflow profiles of velocity, temperature, swirl, and turbulence parameters, thermal and chemical non-LTE effects, and numerical discretization errors. The discrepancies may also be due in part to experimental uncertainties, which are on the order of 5% for temperature and 10% for argon cold mole fraction) 33~ We suspect that inadequacies in the turbulence model are probably the most significant source of error in the calculations. The simple k-e model employed in this study is not really satisfactory even for simple incompressible flows, as the need for axisymmetric jet corrections clearly illustrates. It would be rather remarkable if this model were quantitatively applicable to thermal plasmas without further significant modifications. In particular, there is no fundamental reason why Pr, and Sc, should be constant throughout the flow field as the present model assumes. Indeed, in the conceptually similar situation of a dissociated nitrogen jet discharging into ambient air, O ' C o n n o r et al. ~2~ found that both Pr, and Sc, systematically decrease with distance from the nozzle exit, corresponding to a systematic increase in the rates of diffusion of heat and species relative to momentum. This behavior is entirely consistent with the present results, where constant compromise values of Pr, and Sc, tend to produce too much heat and species diffusion upstream and too little downstream. Better agreement with the data could undoubtedly be obtained by introducing spatial variations in Pr, and Sc, similar to those found by O ' C o n n o r et al. However, this would be an ad hoc approach lacking in generality, and it might tend to obscure other physical effects which the current model neglects. These include buoyancy, ~9"34-36~ variable-density, ~37-3~ and countergradient diffusion ~39'4m effects, some or all of which may be important due to the large density gradients in a thermal plasma. The above discussion suggests that better results might be obtained by using more general turbulence models which attempt to predict the spatial
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variations in Pr, and Sc,, such as that of Newman et al. '4~' This model has in fact been applied to thermal plasmas by Lee'~' and Chyou and Pfender, ~4J but the results do not appear to be significantly better than those obtained using the simpler models of Ref. 5 and the present study. The present model also neglects interactions between turbulence and the ionization and dissociation chemistry, which is probably an even more serious source of error. In particular, the present model presumes that the contents of each computational cell are well mixed and in local equilibrium. Physically, however, a certain degree of " u n m i x e d n e s s '''2' is present; the plasma is not really homogeneous on the scale of the computational cells, but contains interdispersed pockets or islands of plasma with different compositions and temperatures, particularly at the fringes of the jet. Since ionization is a highly energetic and nonlinear process, the effects of these subgrid scale inhomogeneities may well be large, and they are entirely neglected in the present model. Indeed, thermal plasmas are a particularly extreme example of turbulent chemically reacting flow with highly energetic reactions. In spite of a great deal of research on turbulent reacting flow, ~37'42-44~ satisfactory models are not yet available, and the limited successes that have been achieved have required the use of considerably more sophisticated models such as probability density models. ~42-45~It would be of considerable interest to explore the use of such models in thermal plasmas, but this would of course entail a considerable increase in the overall complexity of the computational model. Thus it appears that more detailed and accurate turbulence models for thermal plasmas will probably be required to achieve satisfactory accuracy in simulations of the present type. However, the present results also show that simpler models like the basic k - e model may nevertheless yield useful semiquantitative results of fair accuracy. In particular, such models frequently predict correct trends as geometry and operating conditions are varied, even though their absolute accuracy is less than desired. Further research is needed to determine whether and to what degree this is the case in thermal plasma modeling. APPENDIX. EFFECT OF S W I R L ON I N F L O W P R O F I L E S In a swirling flow, radial pressure gradients develop to compensate the centrifugal forces. These pressure variations then interact with the other flow variables, such as density, velocity, and degree of ionization. These effects are automatically represented in the interior of the calculation, but they must be self-consistently allowed for in specifying the inflow boundary conditions. This may be done as follows. For present purposes, the radial
207
X-~x( p + ~ p k ) =- pw'-
(A1)
2[pR--Pc+3(pRkR--pckc)]
I(&~wR+AxRwc~
XR\
~-
AXc-pR+
AXRpc
Axc-+-~x~ ]
(A2)
where subscripts C and R refer to a regular cell and the cell to its right, respectivelyJ 1~ For a uniform mesh, Eq. (A2) reduces to
Pc =PR+3(pRkR--Pc'kc')--~xR(PR+P,')(WR+Wc)2
2xx
(A3)
Using this equation, we can determine the pressure distribution inside the torch nozzle by marching inward from the torch wall, where the pressure is assumed to be ambient. The overall procedure for determining inflow profiles consistent with given values of S, W, and P can now be summarized as follows: 1. Initialize pressure profile to ambient pressure and guess values for v,,, T,,, and w,,. 2. Calculate species density profiles from current p and T profiles assuming ionization equilibrium and local charge neutrality. 3. Compute W and P. If different from specified values, adjust v,~ and T,, and go to step 2. 4. Calculate k from current v profile using Eq. (7). 5. Calculate p profile from current w, p, and k profiles using Eqs. (A3) and (5). If different from previous p profile, go to step 2. 6. Calculate S and compare to specified value. If different, adjust w,, and go to step 5. The above procedure may seem tedious, but it is easily automated and converges rapidly. It is probably unnecessary for swirl numbers as small as that of the present study, but the need for self-consistent inflow profiles will become progressively more important as swirl is increased. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We are grateful to E. Pfender for supplying us with transport properties for argon and air plasmas, to J. R. Fincke, W. D. Swank, and D. C. Haggard for making their experimental data available to us prior to publication, and to L. D. Cloutman, P. J. O'Rourke, and R. W. Johnson for helpful discussions of turbulence modeling. This work was performed under the auspices of
208
the U.S. Department of Energy under DOE Field Office, Idaho, Contract DE-AC07-76ID01570, supported by the Division of Engineering and Geosciences, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, DOE-OER. REFERENCES
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