학술논문

Numerical Simulation of Helium Arc at High Pressure and Low Current
Document Type
Periodical
Source
IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on. 50(9):3178-3190 Sep, 2022
Subject
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
Mathematical models
Plasmas
Helium
Inductors
Plasma temperature
Computational modeling
Thermodynamics
Arc
plasma
reactor
simulation
Language
ISSN
0093-3813
1939-9375
Abstract
A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model has been developed to investigate the time evolution of a helium plasma discharge at high pressures (from 2 to 8 MPa) and low electric current (0.35 A), including the interaction between the plasma and the electromagnetic fields, under local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) assumption. To account for pressure dependence, novel thermodynamic and transport properties have been calculated in a wide pressure and temperature range. The model has been further improved by considering the effect of plasma–electrode interactions and the formation of the plasma sheath. High-performance computing (HPC) was used to solve the CFD simulation, focusing on reference cases at 8 MPa and 0.35 A. Numerical results have shown that the sheath model and updated transport and thermodynamic properties have a significant impact on the electric potential, resulting in very good agreement between the simulation and experimental values.