Browsing by Author "Artana, Guillermo"

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    Departures from local thermodynamic equilibrium in cutting arc plasmas derived from electron and gas density measurements using a twowavelength quantitative Schlieren technique.
    (2011) Prevosto, Leandro; Artana, Guillermo; Kelly, Héctor; Mancinelli, Beatriz
    A two-wavelength quantitative Schlieren technique that allows inferring the electron and gas densities of axisymmetric arc plasmas without imposing any assumption regarding statistical equilibrium models is reported. This technique was applied to the study of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) departures within the core of a 30 A high-energy density cutting arc. In order to derive the electron and heavy particle temperatures from the inferred density profiles, a generalized two-temperature Saha equation together with the plasma equation of state and the quasineutrality condition were employed. Factors such as arc fluctuations that influence the accuracy of the measurements and the validity of the assumptions used to derive the plasma species temperature were considered. Significant deviations from chemical equilibrium as well as kinetic equilibrium were found at elevated electron temperatures and gas densities toward the arc core edge. An electron temperature profile nearly constant through the arc core with a value of about 14 000–15 000 K, well decoupled from the heavy particle temperature of about 1500 K at the arc core edge, was inferred.
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    Schlieren technique applied to the arc temperature measurement in a high energy density cutting torch.
    (2010) Prevosto, Leandro; Artana, Guillermo; Kelly, Héctor; Mancinelli, Beatriz
    Plasma temperature and radial density profiles of the plasma species in a high energy density cutting arc have been obtained by using a quantitative schlieren technique. A Z-type two-mirror schlieren system was used in this research. Due to its great sensibility such technique allows measuring plasma composition and temperature from the arc axis to the surrounding medium by processing the gray-level contrast values of digital schlieren images recorded at the observation plane for a given position of a transverse knife located at the exit focal plane of the system. The technique has provided a good visualization of the plasma flow emerging from the nozzle and its interactions with the surrounding medium and the anode. The obtained temperature values are in good agreement with those values previously obtained by the authors on the same torch using Langmuir probes.