Modeling of non-equilibrium plasmas in an inductively coupled plasma facility
This work presents the results of the numerical simulation of ionized gas ﬂows inside the torch of an inductively coupled plasma facility in the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics. The main purpose of this work is the parametric investigation of thermo-chemical non-equilibrium eﬀects on the plasma jet at diﬀerent operating pressures ranging from 3 to 15 kPa. The test gas is an ionized air mixture represented by eleven species. The induced electric ﬁeld inside the torch is computed by solving Helmholtz induction equation. The non-equilibrium eﬀects are modeled using a standard two-temperature formulation. In particular, the present analysis assesses the impact of diﬀerent chemical kinetics models and vibration-chemistry-vibration coupling models on the resulting ﬂow and electro-magnetic ﬁelds. Results of the present work are compared with solutions previously computed by assuming local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE)conditions and signiﬁcant diﬀerences on both the induced electric and temperature ﬁeld are observed especially for the low pressure cases.
Partially ionized gases, Inductively coupled plasma facility, Preferential/non-preferential models, Advection upstream split method
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign