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Title: A new electrothermal-chemical method for metals, carbides, and ceramics hard coating: Experiment and theory

Conference ·
OSTI ID:20067630

A new method and an experimental device for powders of metals, carbides and ceramics coating of various substrates are presented. The powder-particles are accelerated and heated by a mixture of plasma and gases resulted from the burning of an energetic (propellant). The operating prototype already allows one to obtain coatings of metals, carbides and ceramics. Some of the coatings obtained, especially those by carbides powders, indicate even at the present stage of research, properties (as hardness, porosity) which are comparable to those provided by the presently industrial methods in use. The accelerating-heating agent in the device (the plasma-gas mixture) is characterized by very high densities (up to 120 kg/m{sup 3}), temperatures (up to 20,000 K) and velocities (more than 1,500 m/s). Due to these characteristics, the powder particles are accelerated to velocities significantly higher than those reached in other coating devices as, for example, the detonation (D) gun. Some preliminary experimental data show that the accelerated particle can reach velocities higher than 1,000 m/s. In parallel, in order to better understand the phenomena taking place inside the device and to determine the optimal process parameters leading to high quality coatings an appropriate theoretical model was developed. The model is able to describe the complex processes of plasma-gas-propellant interaction, gas flow and powder particles heating and acceleration. The model gives a detailed description of the gas, propellant and accelerated particle parameters, their spatial distribution and temporal evolution; predicts their dependence on the values of some input quantities such as: the plasma energy, propellant characteristics and accelerated particles type and geometry. The computational results the authors obtained show that, indeed, during the acceleration process the particles are heated, melted and eventually vaporized. One of the most interesting theoretical results is that the particles exit velocity is practically, independent on the particle dimensions (diameter) and mass. This result as well as the predicted values of particle exit velocity are in good agreement with some preliminary experimental data they obtained.

Research Organization:
Tel-Aviv Univ. (IL)
OSTI ID:
20067630
Resource Relation:
Conference: 1999 IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science, Monterey, CA (US), 06/20/1999--06/24/1999; Other Information: PBD: 1999; Related Information: In: The 26th IEEE international conference on plasma science, 342 pages.
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English