Abstract - CTS-9733369 Milind A. Jog Thermal plasmas are increasingly used in manufacturing and material processing where the high temperatures facilitates energy transport and the free electrons and ions provide an environment for chemical reactions. Typical applications are plasma spraying, chemical vapor deposition, sintering, synthesis, speroidization, waste destruction, and net shape manufacturing. In all of these applications, the heat transport from the plasma is critical in determining the quality of the product. This proposal work is to develop an increased understanding of the fundamentals of the transport processes in the plasma and its interaction with solid/liquid surfaces, and to develop models and correlations for the heat transfer. The processes associated with heat transfer from the plasma to a solid surface are significantly more complicated than for unionized gases because of the electrical sheath which lies close to the solid surface. The proposed work involves the study of the heat transfer to a single particle moving in a thermal plasma. The flow of the neutral gas, the electrons, and the ions will be determined. Detailed analyses of the electric sheath, the production and recombination of charged particles, and the melting of the particle will be made. The melting front will be determined using the Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian method. The numerical predictions will be compared to experimental measurements in the literature of particle motion in induction plasmas and to visualizations of liquid droplets in gas flows. Trends in droplet shape deformation will be predicted as functions of Reynold's and Weber numbers and liquid/gas viscosity and density ratios.
