Akash Yadav
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi
Mayank Kumar
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016,
India
Satyananda Kar
Centre of Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India
Sujay Karmakar
NETRA (NTPC Energy Technology Research Alliance), Greater Noida 201306, India
Nitin B Lal
NETRA (NTPC Energy Technology Research Alliance), Greater Noida 201306, India
A steady state 2D axi-symmetric model of a DC thermal plasma torch has been developed using Comsol Multi-Physics. The plasma is assumed to be in LTE (Local Thermal Equilibrium) and optically thin. The argon gas based torch is non-transferred in nature with tungsten and copper as cathode and anode respectively. Torch inner area along with cathode and anode walls and outside atmospheric chamber are considered for
computational domain. The Argon is injected and ionized in the torch consequently ejecting the plasma jet into the atmospheric chamber. Results have been obtained for two different power inputs to the torch with a specified flow rate of Argon. The model assumes laminar flow where mass, momentum and energy equations coupled with Maxwell's equation known as MHD (magneto-hydrodynamics) model are discretized using
P1+P1 finite element approach. The evolution of velocity and temperature with varying torch power inside and outside the torch has been studied. Temperature and velocity show increasing trend with increase in current.