NUMERICAL-SIMULATION OF HEAT-TRANSFER AND FLUID-FLOW OF A NONEQUILIBRIUM ARGON PLASMA-JET WITH CONFINED WALL

Numerical simulations are presented for the flow and heat transfer cha racteristics of a two-dimensional impinging jet of argon plasma at atm ospheric pressure. The target slab with finite thickness upon which th e plasma jet impinges is assumed to be an electric insulator such as S iC, which is the candidate material for plasma facing components of st eady-state tokamak reactor. The plasma jet is treated by use of a magn etohydrodynamic model that takes its two-temperature non-equilibrium s tate into account and also of the electron continuity equation with am bipolar diffusion and generation terms which describe the microscopic behaviour of electrons. The effects of rear-side cooling conditions of the slab on the plasma-side flow and heat transfer performance are ex amined. Although no significant change is observed in the flow pattern , the plasma-side heat transfer performance is strongly affected by th e rear-side cooling conditions.