Published 4 issues per year
ISSN Print: 1093-3611
ISSN Online: 1940-4360
Indexed in
2D MODELING OF LOW PRESSURE AIR PLASMA REACTOR
ABSTRACT
To study the heat and mass transfer phenomena of atomic oxygen at the solid/gas interface of thermal protection system, we propose to model a low pressure plasma reactor and to qualify by a simulation the recombination and the energy transfer by accommodation of oxygen atoms to a target surface at stagnation point configuration. The flow is described by a system of conservation (momentum, mass and energy) equations and Maxwell-Gauss equation solved by using a Computational Fluid Dynamics code (CFD-ACE®). Model parameters are issued from experimental parameters (reactor volume and geometry, flow rate and composition...). The simulation of plasma phase was performed to compare two kinetic models giving the evolution of the main species (e-, ions, radicals, atoms...) occurring in the plasma. Two surface reactions have been added to these gas phase models. We have obtained the field velocity, temperature and the fluxes of atomic and molecular species (oxygen and nitrogen) in the reactor under similar conditions to experiments. The originality of this work is the capability to characterize the electric field of the plasma discharge along the reactor.