RECENT ADVANCES IN THE MODELLING OF RADIO-FREQUENCY THERMAL PLASMA GENERATORS

Plasma flow and heat transfer are strongly coupled with the electromagnetic (EM) fields in a radio-frequency (RF) thermal plasma torch. The modelling of the RF plasma torch has been developed, step by step, from the simplest one-dimensional (1-D) model to a much more sophisticated 2-D one. Previous modelling approaches based on a 1-D non-self-consistent EM field formulation have given place recently to the new one including a self-consistent EM field solution, which can also be extended to the 3-D case. The...