Three-dimensional chemical non-equilibrium simulation of an argon transferred arc with cross-flow

Abstract A three-dimensional chemical non-equilibrium plasma simulation is performed to investigate the plasma characteristics of a high-intensity argon transferred arc exposed to cross-flow. The model is validated by comparison with experimental data from the literature, and reasonable agreement is obtained for the calculated electron temperature distributions. The simulation results indicate that the interactions of the cross gas flow with the plasma column have a significant influence on the distributions of the electric field close to the anode surface. At a high cross-flow rate, corresponding changes to the distributions of current density and Joule heating occur, leading to a high electron temperature zone stretching upstream of the arc attachment region. By examining the chemical reaction processes near the anode surface, it is found that the rate of electron-impact ionization of excited atoms and the three-body recombination rate are comparable at the positions in the upstream region close to the anode surface where the electron temperature is high, so the electron density does not increase in this region. Compared to the case without cross gas flow, the heavy-species temperature distribution becomes more constricted at a large cross-flow rate, and the energy loss due to the convective cooling makes the temperature gradients steeper on the side facing the cross-flow.