Effect of spray angle on three-dimensional flow and deposition process in atmospheric plasma spray torch: A numerical study

The present paper uses numerical methods to investigate effects of spray angle on three-dimensional flow and deposition process in an atmospheric plasma spray torch with solid shield and lateral metal-powder injection. The spray angle is varied as 90°, 75° and 45° to examine its influences. Due to different flow space resulting from the substrate inclination in different spray-angle cases, the flow fields as well as the deposition process are found to be significantly affected by spray angles. The analysis presented in the paper, including deposition distributions and impact velocity of injected metal powder and its vapor impinging on the substrate, provides valuable information for practical applications and the design work of plasma torch.