Effect of Processing Parameters on Plasma Jet and In-flight Particles Characters in Supersonic Plasma Spraying

Abstract

In supersonic plasma spraying system (SAPS), heat transfer from arc plasma is characterized by several distinct features, such as transport of dissociation and ionization energy and of electrical charges in addition to mass transport. The thermodynamic and transport properties of plasma jet were influenced by several main parameters such as primary gas flow rate, the H2 vol.% and current intensity A. This paper first analyzes the effect of these parameters on the temperature and velocity of plasma jet theoretically. Further, the loading particles were melted and accelerated by plasma jet. Effects of several main parameters such as carrier gas flow rate, the H2 vol.%, the current intensity, the voltage and the spraying distance on temperature and velocity of in-flight particle were studied experimentally. The average maximum temperature and velocity of in-flight particle at any given parameters were systematically quantified. Optimal SAPS process parameters were given in this paper. In general, increasing the particles impacting velocity and surface temperature can improve the maximum spreading factor and decrease the coating porosity.

Keywords

• supersonic plasma spraying
• plasma jet
• in-flight particle
• heat transfer