Analysis of Arc-Heating Phenomena in a Tube

This paper presents an analysis of the flow and energy transport processes in an arc-heating device in which an electric arc and a gas flow pass concurrently through a cylindrical tube. The particular region of interest in the tube is the inlet length over which the hot gas is always separated from the tube wall by a layer of unheated gas. The analysis demonstrates the manner in which the flow parameters in the tube may be computed by the matching of the unheated flow and the heated flow at the thermal boundary for given end boundary conditions. Experimental data obtained with an arc heater are presented in support of the analytical model.