NUMERICAL FORECAST OF THE MELTING AND THERMAL HISTORIES OF PARTICLES INJECTED IN A PLASMA JET

Jorge Romero Rojas (1) , Marcela A. Cruchaga (1) , Diego J. Celentano (2) , Mohammed El Ganaoui (3) , Bernard Pateyron (3)

1 Departamento de Ingeniera Metalurgica
2 Departamento de Ingeniera Mecanica - Metalurgica Pontificia
3 Axe 2 : procédés de traitements de surface

This work presents the numerical simulation of the melting process of a particle injected in a plasma jet. The plasma process is nowadays applied to produce thin coatings on metal mechanical components with the aim of improving the surface resistance to different phenomena such as corrosion, temperature or wear. In this work we studied the heat transfer including phase-change of a bi-layer particle composed of a metallic iron core coated with ceramic alumina, inside a plasma jet. The model accounted for the environmental conditions along the particle path. The numerical simulation of this problem was performed via a temperature-based phase-change finite element formulation. The results obtained with this methodology satisfactorily described the melting process of the particle. Particularly, the results of the present work illustrate the phase change evolution in a bi-layer particle during its motion in the plasma jet. Moreover, the numerical trends agreed with those previously reported in the literature and computed with a finite volume enthalpy based formulation.

Mots clés: Phase-change; heat transfer; bi-layer particle; plasma

Domaines: Génie des procédés; Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Jorge Romero Rojas, Marcela A. Cruchaga, Diego J. Celentano, Mohammed El Ganaoui, Bernard Pateyron. NUMERICAL FORECAST OF THE MELTING AND THERMAL HISTORIES OF PARTICLES INJECTED IN A PLASMA JET. 2009. ⟨hal-00456031⟩