Entrainment in high-velocity, high-temperature plasma jets

The development of a turbulent high-velocity, high-temperature argon plasma jet issuing into air has been computationally modeled using the computer program LAVA. LAVA is a comprehensive computational software program developed for flowing thermal plasmas in the absence of electromagnetic fields, with particular emphasis on plasma jets. The plasma is represented as a multicomponent chemically reacting ideal gas with temperature-dependent thermodynamic and transport properties. The plasma flow is governed by the complete transient, compressible Navier–Stokes equations in two-dimensions in the current simulation. Turbulence is represented by the k – e model. Neutrals, ions and electrons are considered as separate components of species of the mixture. General kinetic and equilibrium chemistry algorithms compute ionization, dissociation, recombination and other chemical reactions. Computational results and extensive comparisons with experimental data are presented. In particular the influence of inflow boundary conditions and the ability of the k – e turbulence model to describe entrainment with chemistry are examined.