Thermodynamical nonequilibrium nitrogen plasmas in a direct-current arcjet engine nozzle

Journal Article · Thu Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1996 · IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/27.491762· OSTI ID:244962

Tahara, Hirokazu; Komiko, Kazuhito; Yonezawa, Takashi; Andoh, Yasutaka; Yoshikawa, Takao ^[1]

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1. Osaka Univ., Toyonaka, Osaka (Japan). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

The 10-kW-class direct-current arcjet engine is a promising device suitable for economically assisting material processing in which a high throughput of material is desired. Here, spectroscopic measurements were carried out to understand the arc structure and the flowfield in a 10-kW-class water-cooled direct-current nitrogen arcjet engine with a supersonic expansion nozzle for material processing. In the expansion nozzle, the pressure and electron density drastically decreased downstream, and therefore the plasma was in thermodynamical nonequilibrium, although the plasma in the constrictor was expected to be nearly in a temperature-equilibrium condition. The radial profiles of the physical properties for N{sub 2} and N{sub 2}{sup +} showed that there existed a core flow with high vibrational and rotational temperatures and large electron number densities on the center axis, even at the nozzle exit. Both of these temperatures on the arcjet axis at the nozzle exit and the electron temperature in the constrictor increased linearly with the input power, regardless of mass flow rate. The vibrational temperature ranged from 6,000 to 10,000 K in input power levels of 5--11 kW and the rotational temperature from 500 to 2,000 K.

• OSTI ID: 244962
• Journal Information: IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, Journal Name: IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 24; ISSN ITPSBD; ISSN 0093-3813
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ELECTRON DENSITY
ELECTRON TEMPERATURE
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
MATERIALS
NITROGEN
NITROGEN IONS
NON-EQUILIBRIUM PLASMA
PLASMA ARC SPRAYING
PLASMA DIAGNOSTICS
PLASMA EXPANSION
PLASMA GUNS
SPECTROSCOPY
SUPERSONIC FLOW