Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Flow and temperature fields in a free discharge inductively coupled plasma

Conference ·
OSTI ID:6665717
Computations were made of the flow and temperature fields in an inductively coupled argon plasma at atmospheric pressure under confined and free discharge conditions. The model takes into account gravity effects and swirl in the sheath gas. Natural convection was found to have a negligible effect on the flow and temperature fields under confined discharge conditions but a significant effect for the free discharge. The back flow in the discharge was substantially reduced in the presence of swirl for swirl velocities over the range 0-50 m/s. Also with a mode-rate increase in swirl, the conduction heat flux to the wall decreased but increased with the further increase in swirl. From an overall energy balance point of view, conductive heat flux to the wall of the plasma confinement tube was substantially lower for a free plasma discharge compared to that for a confined plasma.
Research Organization:
Sherbrooke Univ., Quebec (Canada). Dept. of Chemical Engineering; Massachusetts Univ., Amherst (USA). Dept. of Chemistry
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-77EV04320
OSTI ID:
6665717
Report Number(s):
CONF-790867-2; ON: DE84012339
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English