Numerical investigation on the flow characteristics of a reverse-polarity plasma torch by two-temperature thermal non-equilibrium modelling

A two-temperature(2 T)thermal non-equilibrium model is developed to address the thermal nonequilibrium phenomenon that inevitably exists in the reverse-polarity plasma torch(RPT)and applied to numerically investigate the plasma flow characteristics inside and outside the RPT.Then,a detailed comparison of the results of the 2 T model with those of the local thermal equilibrium(LTE)model is presented.Furthermore,the temperature of the plasma jet generated by a RPT and the RPT’s voltage are experimentally measured to compare and validate the result obtained by different models.The differences of the measured excitation temperature and the arc voltage between the 2 T model and experimental measurement are less than 13%and 8%,respectively,in all operating cases,validating the effectiveness of the 2 T model.The LTE model overestimates the velocity and temperature distribution of the RPT and its plasma jet,showing that thermal non-equilibrium phenomena cannot be neglected in the numerical modelling of the RPT.Unlike other common hot cathode plasma torches,the thermal non-equilibrium phenomenon is found even in the arc core of the RPT,due to the strong cooling effect caused by the big gas flow rate.