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Maher I. Boulos Pierre L. Fauchais Emil Pfender Editors Handbook of Thermal Plasmas Handbook of Thermal Plasmas (cid:129) (cid:129) Maher I. Boulos Pierre L. Fauchais Emil Pfender Editors Handbook of Thermal Plasmas With1236Figuresand147Tables Editors MaherI.Boulos PierreL.Fauchais DepartmentofChemicaland SciencesdesProcédésCéramiquesetde BiotechnologyEngineering TraitementsdeSurface(SPCTS) UniversityofSherbrooke UniversityofLimoges Sherbrooke,QC,Canada Limoges,France EmilPfender DepartmentofMechanicalEngineering UniversityofMinnesota Minneapolis,MN,USA ISBN978-3-030-84934-4 ISBN978-3-030-84936-8(eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84936-8 ©SpringerNatureSwitzerlandAG2023 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpartofthe materialisconcerned,specificallytherightsoftranslation,reprinting,reuseofillustrations,recitation, broadcasting,reproductiononmicrofilmsorinanyotherphysicalway,andtransmissionorinformation storageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilarmethodology nowknownorhereafterdeveloped. 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Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:Gewerbestrasse11,6330Cham,Switzerland In memoriam to: Alice Boulos Kilchenmann (1942–2021) My Life Partner, the Love of my Life, for her Encouragement and Unwavering Support Emil Pfender (1925–2016) For his Leadership and Pioneering Contribution to the Field of Thermal Plasma Maher I. Boulos Foreword Anyone who has witnessed a lightning strike has seen a thermal plasma. Anyone who has travelled in a car, train, or airplane, or watched a construction welder working on a steel bridge or a new high-rise building has benefitted from thermal plasma applications. Yet few people have heard of thermal plasmas despite their immense value to industry and society. Indeed, thermal plasmas were already in common use decades before the term “plasma” was coined by Irving Langmuir in the1920s. Thermal plasmas are characterized by high temperatures, large energy fluxes, intense radiative emission, and high densities of electrons and reactive species. Thesepropertiesgivethermalplasmasimmensevalue.Thefirstwidespreadimple- mentation of thermal plasmas (or any type of plasma, for that matter), carbon arc lamps, occurred towards the end of the nineteenth century. Ever since, thermal plasmashavebeenusedinanever-increasingrangeofapplications.Anincomplete list includes high-power plasma jets to test materials for re-entry in the earth’s atmosphere;low-andhigh-voltagecircuitbreakersforelectricalsupplyprotection; electricarcfurnacesforsteelmakingandothermetallurgicalandmineralprocessing applications;plasmawastetreatmentandgasification;plasmacuttingofmetalsand arc welding to join metals; plasma spraying of wear-resistant and thermal-barrier coatings; plasma spheroidization of metal and ceramic powders, including the micron-sized powders used in many 3D-printing methods; plasma nanoparticle production for electronic applications; wire-arc additive manufacturing for 3D printing of large metal components; and inductively coupled plasmas used with massoropticalspectroscopyforelementalanalysis. Aswellasbeingpractical,thermalplasmasarescientificallyinteresting.Thermal plasmasystemscomeinwidevarieties–theyrangefromafewwattstohundredsof megawattsandincludeDCandACelectricarcsandDC,RF,andmicrowaveplasma jets. Eventhesimplestexamples, suchasstable DC arcs inpureargon,hold many secrets – a welder who uses such an arc every day is unlikely to realize that its temperaturemayexceed20,000Kandthattheplasmamayflowat200m/sormore. Once theinteractions oftheplasmawithelectrodes andothermaterials areconsid- ered, the complexity increases dramatically. A detailed understanding requires expertiseinplasmaphysics,chemicalkinetics,thermodynamics,statisticalphysics, materials science and metallurgy, electromagnetism, fluid dynamics, radiative vii viii Foreword transfer,andmore.Developmentofapplicationsrequireselectrical,mechanical,and chemical engineering skills. Countless scientists and engineers have devoted their careers to studying these phenomena, bringing new insights and developments everyyear. Thethreemostcelebratednamesinthermalplasmaresearchanddevelopmentare Maher Boulos, Pierre Fauchais, and Emil Pfender. Ever since Vol. 1 of their landmark Thermal Plasmas – Fundamentals and Applications appeared in 1994, plasma researchers have asked for Vol. 2. At last, “Vol. 2,” and much more, has arrived in the form of the new Handbook of Thermal Plasmas, which contains an updated version of Vol. 1 (10 chapters presenting the fundamentals of thermal plasmas) and 22 new chapters covering thermal plasma generation, plasma, and particledynamics,includingdiagnosticsandmodelling,industrialapplications,and thermophysicalproperties. The handbook was worth the long wait. It is, in a word, a masterwork. Seldom does a reference work present so much information so cohesively and accessibly. The authors’ expertise, accumulated over their long and productive careers in academia and industry, has allowed them to assemble the diverse knowledge requiredtocovertheexpansivelandscapeofthermalplasmascienceandtechnology. Unlike many handbooks, the authors have cooperated closely together, and with guestcoauthorsinthelastfewchapters,ensuringthatthechapterscomplementeach othertoprovideaconnectedandcomprehensiveguide. Thelistofthosewhowouldbenefitfromreadingparts,orallofthehandbook,is long. The work contains essential information for students and researchers new to the field, and even the most experienced thermal plasma researchers and engineers willfindawealthofvaluablematerial.Butamuchwideraudience,thoseforwhom thermal plasmas are a tool rather than a focus, should also use the resource. The group includes researchers who study the products of thermal plasma processes, such as plasma-sprayed coatings and welded metal components, and the many technologistswhoroutinelyapplythermalplasmas. TheHandbookofThermalPlasmaswillundoubtedlybeacceptedasthestandard reference in the field. The information and insights contained therein will be instrumental to the education of current and future generations of researchers and engineers and will inevitably contribute to the development of new and improved products and processes. The authors have provided a work of immense value, for whichanyoneusingorinterestedinthermalplasmasowesthemadebtofgratitude. CSIROManufacturing AnthonyB.Murphy Lindfield,NSW,Australia Preface Thermalplasmatechnologyhasevolvedoverthepastfivedecadesintoanadvanced interdisciplinarysciencethatisattractingincreasingattention.Intheearly1960sand 1970s, its initial applications were mostly triggered by the aerospace program and the need for the development of high-power arc gas heaters for high-temperature supersonicwindtunnels.SeveralcommercialentitiesledbyChemischeWerkeHüls AG in Germany, Tioxide and Tetronics in the UK, Union Carbide, Westinghouse, andPlasmaEnergyCorporation(PEC)intheUSA,AerospatialeinFrance,andSKF inSwedencapturedthisopportunityforthedevelopmentofplasma-basedtechnol- ogies for the Metallurgical and Chemical Process Industries (CPI). Industrial-scale applications of thermal plasmas also included plasma cutting and welding; plasma spray coating and the deposition of near net-shaped parts; plasma cladding of pre- forms for the fiber-optics industry; and more recently the plasma synthesis of advancedmaterialsincludingmicron-sized,ultrafine,andnanopowdersandplasma wastetreatment. As engineers or research scientists undertake a design or an R&D projectalong anyoftheseareas,theyarefacedwiththemajorchallengeofhavingtobeacquainted with a wide range of scientific disciplines varying from plasma physics, statistical thermodynamics, high-temperature chemical kinetics, advanced transport phenomena, and materials science. Publications dealing with thermal plasma technology tend tobedispersed overawiderange ofscientificjournals,whichmakes itrather difficult to access for the expert as well as the newcomer. Having maintained an active R&D program in this field for more than four decades and taught regular graduate level and continuing education courses covering different aspects of thermal plasma technology, we have decided a few years ago to put our collective knowledge, diverse experiences, and backgrounds together in a single reference textbook devoted to the fundamentals and applications of thermal plasmas. We choose to address the book to practicing engineers and research scientists looking forasimpleandclearreviewoftheprincipalfundamentalconceptsinvolvedrather thananexhaustivesurveyofthesubject.Thisbookmayalsoserveasanintroductory text for graduate students entering the field of thermal plasma technology. Ample referencesaregivenineachchapterforamorein-depthstudyofthetopicscovered. ix x Preface Inordertomakethehandbookmore“readerfriendly,”thematerialispresentedin five distinct parts each dealing with a well-defined aspect of the science and technologyasfollows. PartI,FundamentalsofThermalPlasmas,Chaps.▶1–▶10,isessentiallyan updatedversionofourearlier bookThermal Plasmas, FundamentalsandApplica- tions, published in 1994 by Plenum Press, now part of the Springer group. It is devotedtothemorefundamentalconceptsofplasmaphysicsandgaseouselectron- ics, thermodynamics, and transport properties of plasmas. It is complemented by a largevolumeofthermodynamic,transport,andradiationdatapresentedingraphical andtabulatedforminPartVofthisbook. PartII,GenerationofThermalPlasmas,Chaps.▶11–▶19,isdedicatedtoa reviewofthebasicconceptsusedforthegenerationofplasmaswithChaps.▶11– ▶17coveringDCplasmatorchdesignsandelectrodephenomenaforsuchapplica- tionssuchasplasmacutting,welding,plasmatransferredarc(PTA)deposition,wire- arc and plasma spraying, torches. Chapters ▶18 and ▶19 cover respectively RF inductivelycoupledplasma((ICP)andhigh-powerplasmatorchesandtransferredarc furnaces.Specialattentionisgiventopresentfundamentalaspectsoftorchdesignand performancewithoutinfringingontechnologicalproprietaryinformation. PartIII,PlasmaandParticleDynamics,Chaps.▶20–▶24,coversplasmaand in-flightparticlediagnostictechniquesaswellasmathematicalmodellingofplasma and particle dynamics. Chaps. ▶20 and ▶21 are dedicated to plasma diagnostics including optical emission and absorption spectroscopy, laser techniques, flow visualization, and probe techniques. Chapter ▶22 provides a brief introduction of standard powder characterization techniques followed by in-flight particle velocity and temperature measurements. These include laser Doppler anemometry and two-wavelength pyrometry. The remaining two chapters of this part, Chaps. ▶23 and ▶24, are dedicated respectively to momentum, heat, and mass transfer phenomena under plasma conditions, as well as particle trajectory and temperature history calculations in plasma flows, including plasma-particle interactions under denseparticleloadingconditions. Part IV, Industrial Applications of Thermal Plasmas, Chaps. ▶25–▶30, covers a wide range of industrial-scale applications of thermal plasma technology withChap.▶25providinganexampleofplasmaprocessintegrationinanindustrial scale environment for the thermal spray industry, including auxiliary equipment’s, automation,environmental,andhealthconcerns.Subsequentchaptersarededicated to different industrial sectors, with Chap. ▶26 covering the role of plasma in the thermal spray-coating industry; Chap. ▶27 plasma in the aerospace industry; and Chaps. ▶28, ▶29, and ▶30 covering, respectively, applications of plasma tech- nologyinthemetallurgical,chemicalprocess,andthewastetreatmentindustries.It should be pointed out that as coverage made in these chapters goes back a few decades,anumberofexamplesprovidedforindustrial-scaleapplicationsmightnot havesurvivedtechnoeconomicpressuresandhavesincebeenabandoned.Theyare, nevertheless,maintainedbecauseoftheintrinsicvalueofthetechnologyandthefact that in our rapidly changing technoeconomic environment and available energy Preface xi resources, interest might be revived in some of these technologies for the same productoralternateapplications. Part V, Thermodynamic, Transport, and Radiation Properties of Thermal Plasmas,Chaps.▶31and▶32,presentsacompilationofrelevantthermodynamic, transport, and radiation property data in graphical and tabulated form for a wide rangeofgases,includingtheeffectofthepresenceofmetalvaporsontheproperties ofpuregases.Suchdataisindispensableforplasmaequipmentandprocessdesign calculations.Theywerebasedonestablisheddatabasiscurrentlyusedinanumber of leading research centers around the world, as well as the large volume of data availableintheopenliterature. Thisbookhasgrownoutofworkdonebytheauthorsandtheirco-workersattheir respectiveuniversities. Thanksareduetomanyformerstudents andco-workersof theauthorswhocontributeddirectlyorindirectlytothisbook.Thelossofourdear colleague Professor Emil Pfender, who passed away on January 28, 2016, sadly deprivedhimfromseeingthisHandbookcompletedinspiteofthetimeandefforthe haddevotedtothisproject.Hismemoryischerishedbyusandmanyofhisfriends andcolleaguesforhisvaluablecontributiontothefieldofthermalplasmas. Wealsowanttothankallguestcoauthorswhojoinedusforthecompletionofthe last eight chapters ofthis handbook, Prof. Dr. M.Auweter-Kurtz, Dr. Y. Cressault, Dr. R. Henne, Prof. J.W. Jurewicz, and Dr. A.B. Murphy, whose contributions are gratefullyacknowledged.Special thanksareduetoourlifepartners,Alice Boulos, PauletteFauchais,andMajaPfender,fortheirpatience,understanding,andencour- agement in the many years of sustained effort that led to the realization of this Handbook. Sherbrooke,QC,Canada MaherI.Boulos Limoges,France PierreL.Fauchais Minneapolis,MN,USA EmilPfender February2023