Influence of the Shroud Gas Injection Configuration on the Characteristics of a DC Non-transferred Arc Plasma Torch

The characteristics of the plasma jet emanating from a dc non-transferred plasma torch is affected by many factors including arc current, type of gas, gas flow rate, gas injection configuration and torch geometry. The present work focuses on experimental investigation of the influence of shroud gas...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Plasma chemistry and plasma processing Vol. 38; no. 4; pp. 759 - 770
Main Authors:	Yugesh, Vadikkeettil, Ravi, Ganesh, Ramachandran, Kandasamy, Vidhi, Goyal, Meher, Kailsha Chandra
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	New York Springer US 01-07-2018 Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:	Characterization and Evaluation of Materials Chemistry Chemistry and Materials Science Classical Mechanics Configurations Efficiency Electric potential Flow velocity Gas flow Gas injection Inorganic Chemistry Mechanical Engineering Nozzles Original Paper Plasma Plasma jets Thermodynamic efficiency I–V characteristics Plasma torch Electro-thermal efficiency Shroud gas injection DC non-transferred arc
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Summary:	The characteristics of the plasma jet emanating from a dc non-transferred plasma torch is affected by many factors including arc current, type of gas, gas flow rate, gas injection configuration and torch geometry. The present work focuses on experimental investigation of the influence of shroud gas injection configuration on the I–V characteristics and electro-thermal efficiency of a dc non-transferred plasma torch operated in nitrogen at atmospheric pressure. The plasma gas is injected into the torch axially and shroud gas is injected through three different nozzles such as normal, sheath and twisted nozzles. The effects of flow rates of plasma/axial gas and arc current on I–V characteristics and electro-thermal efficiency of the torch holding different nozzles are investigated. The I–V characteristics and electro-thermal efficiency of the torch are found to be strongly influenced by the shroud gas injection configuration. The effect of arc current on arc voltage decreases with increasing the axial gas flow rate. At higher axial gas flow rate (> 45 lpm), the I–V characteristics of the plasma torch are similar irrespective of the nozzle used. The variation of electro-thermal efficiency with arc current is almost similar to that of arc voltage with arc current. As expected, the electro-thermal efficiency is increased when the axial gas flow rate is increased and at higher axial gas flow rate, it is not influenced by the arc current and shroud gas configuration. The plasma torch with normal nozzle may be better in the range of operating conditions used in this study.
ISSN:	0272-4324 1572-8986
DOI:	10.1007/s11090-018-9890-6