Improvement of Plasma Gun Performance using Comprehensive Fluid Element Modeling: Part I
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Felix A. Muggli, Ronald J. Molz, Richard McCullough, and Dave Hawley (Submitted March 9, 2007; in revised form June 6, 2007) The use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to model the operation of thermal-spray processes has gained interest in the thermal-spray community, able to provide an understanding as to how a process functions, and better how to make a process work better. Advancements to the science of modeling now permits the ability to create a comprehensive model of a plasma gun that not only simulates the dynamics of the gas, but also the mechanics of arcs (plasma), thermodynamics, and entrained particulates to form a nearly complete model of a working thermal-spray process. Work presented includes the methods and procedures used to validate the model to a Sulzer Metco TriplexProTM-200 plasma gun and exploration of the operating regime to give an in depth and insightful look into the physics behind the operation of a triple-arc cascaded plasma gun.
Keywords
flow simulation, magneto-hydrodynamics, particulate flow, plasma spray gun, process optimization, supersonic flow
1. Introduction Recent developments in flow simulation software, numeric modeling, and hardware make the reliable use of simulation tools for the development of spray guns in an industrial environment feasible (Ref 1). From a fluid dynamics point of view, a spray gun features many interesting phenomena, like supersonic flow, particle transport and fluid heating by arcs. The later one calls for the coupling of the plasma arc modeling with the flow models. Such a coupling goes beyond the capability of most commercial codes for computational fluid dynamics and, therefore, development of additional models is necessary. As the quality of CFD depends on numerical methods, models, parameter settings and boundary conditions, a thorough validation for any new application is absolutely necessary.
This article is an invited paper selected from presentations at the 2007 International Thermal Spray Conference and has been expanded from the original presentation. It is simultaneously published in Global Coating Solutions, Proceedings of the 2007 International Thermal Spray Conference, Beijing, China, May 1416, 2007, Basil R. Marple, Margaret M. Hyland, Yuk-Chiu Lau, Chang-Jiu Li, Rogerio S. Lima, and Ghislain Montavon, Ed., ASM International, Materials Park, OH, 2007. Felix A. Muggli, Sulzer Innotec, Sulzer Markets & Technology Ltd, Winterthur, Switzerland; and Ronald J. Molz, Richard McCullough, and Dave Hawley, Sulzer Metco (US) Inc, Westbury, New York, USA. Contact e-mail: felix.muggli@ sulzer.com.
Journal of Thermal Spray Technology
Only then, the designer can trust in the CFD results and draw conclusions for the optimization of the spray gun. The article is the first part of a two parts article and focuses on the modeling of fluid dynamics and electromagnetism and its first validation runs for the Sulzer Metco TriplexProTM-200 plasma gun. In the companion paper to this one, further applications of these tools in the industrial design environme
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