Performance of an atmospheric plasma torch with various inlet angles

Atmospheric plasma torch has many useful characteristics such as high current, high temperature and highly intensive radiation power. The performance of non-transferred plasma torch is significantly dependent on jet flow characteristics out of nozzle. Also, the compulsory swirl is being produced to gain the shape that can concentrate the plasma to the center of gas flow. In this study, the thermal flow characteristics of non-transferred plasma torch are investigated under atmospheric conditions. Numerical analyses are carried out with various inlet angles considering the swirl strength. In order to solve the governing equations, we have used a commercial code, CFD-ACE+ with FVM and SIMPLER algorithm. Furthermore, the size of flame is also experimentally investigated with various gas species.