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Title: Radial-flow plasma reactors: fluid-dynamic and transport studies

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:6494585

Fluid dynamics in radial-flow plasma reactors was investigated by suitably idealizing the reactor geometry and by employing the complete elliptic forms of the Navier-Stokes equation. No evidence of flow separation was observed in the low Reynolds number limit. Flow separation was seen first at a Reynolds number of 10 and an aspect ratio of 2. The separated region consists of a single clockwise vortex at all Reynolds numbers and aspect ratios. It was also seen that even at low Reynolds numbers and small aspect ratios the field between the circular plates beyond one pipe radius is not influenced significantly by the application of boundary layer arguments to the flow within the pipe. In the Stokes flow limit the flow field was also calculated analytically by partitioning the flow domain into two regions and subsequently matching the two different solutions at the dividing plane. The flow field calculated numerically was employed in the analysis of two plasma processes in radial-flow reactions: the etching of a photoresist in an oxygen plasma and the etching of SiO/sub 2/ in a CF/sub 4/ plasma. In each case the analysis was performed by combining the plasma chemistry and the plasma structure with a model for the transport-reaction phenomena occurring within the reactor.

Research Organization:
Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park (USA)
OSTI ID:
6494585
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English