Title: Improvement of plasma jet in atmospheric pressure plasma polishing

Authors: Jufan Zhang; Wei Dang; Bing Li; Xiaorui Zhu

Addresses: School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Shenzhen Graduate School, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China ' School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Shenzhen Graduate School, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China ' School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Shenzhen Graduate School, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China ' School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Shenzhen Graduate School, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China

Abstract: Atmospheric pressure plasma polishing is an efficient method to achieve ultra-smooth surfaces. The employed plasma torch is a widely adopted tool to generate stable plasma jet. The purpose of investigating and improving the performance of plasma jet in high pressure, fluid finite element analysis is to study the influences of gas flow and torch structure features on the distribution of reactive radicals outside the discharge zone. Afterwards, atomic emission spectroscopy is utilised in plasma jet experiments to test the simulation results. Surface roughness and removal profile after machining are also detected to demonstrate the validity of structure modification. It is indicated that species and concentration of reactive radicals in plasma are not changed remarkably by convergence structure. Instead, the convergence structure is helpful to eject regular plasma flame so as to achieve predictable removal profile. Meanwhile, the optimal parameters are determined for new torch, with which higher removal rate and more favourable profile are obtained. [Received 15 January 2013; Revised 9 June 2013; Accepted 30 December 2013]

Keywords: atmospheric pressure plasma polishing; plasma jet; structural optimisation; finite element analysis; FEA; atomic emission spectroscopy; removal profile; surface roughness; reactive atom etching; fluid simulation; surface quality; ultra-smooth surfaces; gas flow; torch structure; reactive radicals.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMR.2014.064436

International Journal of Manufacturing Research, 2014 Vol.9 No.3, pp.245 - 257

Published online: 30 Aug 2014 *

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