FRVT - Artículos en Revistas Internacionales
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://48.217.138.120/handle/20.500.12272/396
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Item Numerical Simulation of the Voltage–Current Characteristic of an Atmospheric Pressure Discharge: The Glow‑to‑Arc Transition.(2024) Cejas, Ezequiel; Prevosto, Leandro; Minotti, FernandoThe glow-to-arc transition of a convection-stabilized atmospheric pressure air discharge is numerically investigated. Two separate models are considered: a one-dimensional axisym metric time-dependent fuid model of the positive column, describing the thermal-instabil ity, and a sheath model of a cold cathode describing the feld-emission instability, which must then be properly matched together. The fuid model considers the most important chemical reactions in air plasma, including thermal ionization in atomic collisions. The radial electric feld in the plasma is obtained from the Poisson equation. The voltage–cur rent characteristic of the discharge is simulated for a time-varying current up to 300 mA. It is found that at some critical value slightly above 200 mA, the contraction of the positive column arises from a vibrational–translational energy relaxation. The subsequent increases in the discharge current density in the positive column drive in turn a feld-emission insta bility in the cathode, which is accompanied by a large voltage drop. Simulation results are validated against available experimental data.Item Investigation of the relevant kinetic processes in the initial stage of a double-arcing instability in oxygen plasmas.(2018) Mancinelli, Beatriz; Prevosto, Leandro; Chamorro, Juan Camilo; Minotti, Fernando; Kelly, HéctorA numerical investigation of the kinetic processes in the initial (nanosecond range) stage of the double-arcing instability was developed. The plasma-sheath boundary region of an oxygen operated cutting torch was considered. The energy balance and chemistry processes in the dis charge were described. It is shown that the double-arcing instability is a sudden transition from a diffuse (glow-like) discharge to a constricted (arc-like) discharge in the plasma-sheath boundary region arising from a field-emission instability. A critical electric field value of 107 V/m was found at the cathodic part of the nozzle wall under the conditions considered. The field-emission instability drives in turn a fast electronic-to-translational energy relaxation mechanism, giving rise to a very fast gas heating rate of at least 109 K/s, mainly due to reactions of preliminary dissocia tion of oxygen molecules via the highly excited electronic state populated by electron impact. It is expected that this fast oxygen heating rate further stimulates the discharge contraction through the thermal instability mechanism.Item Cathode-sheath model for field emission sustained atmospheric pressure discharges(2021) Cejas, Ezequiel; Prevosto, Leandro; Minotti, Fernando; Ferreyra, Matías; Chamorro, Juan Camilo; Fina, BrendaThe cathode-sheath region of a discharge in atmospheric pressure air with a flat copper cathode is numerically investigated by using a simple fluid model that takes into account non-local ionization. The effects of the cathode temperature are considered. Results are obtained in a wide current density range of 1–102 A/cm2 , which spans from normal glow discharge, through abnormal glow discharge, up to the early stages of the arcing transition. It is shown that the glow-to-arc transition arises from a field-emission instability at the cathode when the cur rent density is larger than 10 A/cm2 , i.e., when the cathode field exceeds a critical value of about 45 V/lm for the conditions considered. It is also shown that the cathode temperature significantly influences the cathode-sheath region. The proposed model is validated by comparing the numerical results with available experimental data.Item Numerical investigation of the double-arcing phenomenon in a cutting arc torch.(2014) Mancinelli, Beatriz; Minotti, Fernando; Prevosto, Leandro; Kelly, HéctorA numerical investigation of the double-arcing phenomenon in a cutting arc torch is reported. The dynamics of the double-arcing were simulated by using a two-dimensional model of the gas breakdown development in the space-charge layer contiguous to the nozzle of a cutting arc torch operated with oxygen. The kinetic scheme includes ionization of heavy particles by electron impact, electron attachment, electron detachment, electron–ion recombination, and ion–ion recombination. Complementary measurements during double-arcing phenomena were also conducted. A marked rise of the nozzle voltage was found. The numerical results showed that the dynamics of a cathode spot at the exit of the nozzle inner surface play a key role in the raising of the nozzle voltage, which in turn allows more electrons to return to the wall at the nozzle inlet. The return flow of electrons thus closes the current loop of the double-arcing. The increase in the (floating) nozzle voltage is due to the fact that the increased electron emission at the spot is mainly compensated by the displacement current (the ions do not play a relevant role due to its low-mobility) until that the stationary state is achieved and the electron return flow fully-compensates the electron emission at the spot. A fairly good agreement was found between the model and the experiment for a spot emission current growth rate of the order of 7 x 104 A/s.Item Modelling of the Plasma–Sheath Boundary Region in Wall-Stabilized Arc Plasmas: Unipolar Discharge Properties.(2017) Mancinelli, Beatriz; Prevosto, Leandro; Chamorro, Juan Camilo; Minotti, Fernando; Kelly, HéctorA two-dimensional model of the non-equilibrium unipolar discharge occurring in the plasma–sheath boundary region of a transferred-arc was developed. This model was used to study the current transfer to the nozzle (1 mm diameter) of a 30 A arc cutting torch operated with oxygen. The energy balance and chemistry processes in the discharge were described by using a kinetic block of 45 elementary reactions and processes with the participation of 13 species including electronically excited particles. The nonlocal transport of electrons was accounted for into the fluid model. The dependence of the ion mobility with the electric field was also considered. Basic discharge properties were described. It has been found that a large part (* 80%) of the total electric power (1700 mW) delivered in the bulk of the sheath region is spent in heating the positive ions and further dissipated through collisions with the neutral particles. The results also showed that the electron energy loss in inelastic collisions represents only * 25% of the electron power and that about 63% of the power spent on gas heating is produced by the ion– molecule reaction, the electron–ion and ion–ion recombination reactions, and by the electron attachment. The rest of the power converted into heat is contributed by dissociation by electron-impact, dissociative ionization and quenching of O(1 D). Some fast gas heating channels which are expected to play a key role in the double-arcing phenomena in oxygen gas were also identified.Item Experimental Characterization of a Low-Current Cutting Torch.(2004) Kelly, Héctor; Mancinelli, Beatriz; Prevosto, Leandro; Minotti, Fernando; Márquez, AndrésAn experimental characterization of a low-current (30-40 A) cutting torch is presented. To avoid contamination of the plasma arc by removed anode material, a rotating steel cylinder was used as the anode and the arc was anchored onto the cylinder lateral surface. The cathode-anode and cathode-nozzle voltage drops, together with the gas pressure in the plenum chamber were registered for different values of the mass flow rate injected into the plenum chamber. By employing an optical system with a large magnification (≈ 15 X), the arc radius at the nozzle exit was also determined with a digital optical camera. The obtained experimental quantities were used to evaluate several flow properties at the nozzle exit (hot arc plasma and cold gas temperatures, arc and gas velocities, etc.) by employing a simplified theoretical model for the plasma flow in the nozzle. The obtained results are in reasonable agreement with the data reported in the literature by other authors. Explanations of the origin of the clogging effect and the nozzle voltage are also presented.Item Hydrodynamic Model for the Plasma-Gas Flow in a Cutting Torch Nozzle.(2004) Kelly, Héctor; Minotti, Fernando; Prevosto, Leandro; Mancinelli, BeatrizWe present a simple hydrodynamic model to obtain the profiles of the relevant physical quantities along a nozzle of arbitrary cross-section in a cutting torch. The model uses a two-zone approximation (a hot central plasma carrying the discharge current wrapped by a relatively cold gas which thermally isolates the nozzle wall from the plasma). Seeking for a solution with sonic conditions at the nozzle exit, the model allows expressing all the profiles in terms of the externally controlled parameters of the torch (geometry of the torch, discharge current, mass flow of the gas and plenum pressure) and the values of the arc and gas temperatures at the nozzle entrance. These last two values can be estimated simply appealing to energy conservation in the cathode-nozzle region. The model contains additional features compared with previous reported models, while retaining simplicity. The detailed consideration of an arc region coupled to the surrounding gas dynamics allows determining voltage drops and consequent delivered power with less assumptions than those found in other published works, and at the same time reduces the set of parameters needed to determine the solution.Item On the Use of Sweeping Langmuir Probes in Cutting-Arc Plasmas—Part II: Interpretation of the Results.(2008) Prevosto, Leandro; Kelly, Héctor; Minotti, FernandoA semiempirical Langmuir probe model is intro duced that is particularly adapted to high-energy-density cutting arcs, for which, as we have shown in Part I, the ion current collected by negatively biased probes shows no plateau in the ion branch of the current–voltage (I–V ) probe characteristic, and the signal amplitude is independent of the probe radius. According to the model, the ion drag due to the high-velocity plasma flow around the probe limits the effectively collecting area to a small fraction of the probe surface. If, according to the experimental evidence, this fraction is made independent of the probe radius, then its value results proportional to the probe bias, and so no plateau is found, at least as long as the collecting area is less than (half) the probe surface, which happens only at rather high probe bias. The model requires the determination of the function relating the electric field (in the region between the unperturbed plasma and the space-charge sheath close to the probe) to the parameters of the problem. Dimensional analysis together with empirical information allow to restrict the form of this function to leave only an auxiliary dimensionless function, which can be argued to be practically constant and whose value can be determined between rather tight bounds. As an example, radial profiles of plasma temperature and density are obtained by applying the proposed model to the experimental values of a I–V probe characteristic obtained in Part I. The derived temperature profile is in good agreement with a previous published numerical simulation for a similar cutting torch.