Investigation of particle in-flight characteristics during atmospheric plasma spraying of yttria stabilized ZrO2: Part 2. Modeling

Yttria stabilized ZrO2 particle in-flight characteristics in an Ar-H-2 atmo spheric plasma jet have been studied using analytical and experimental tech niques. In the previous article,((1)) the primary gas flow, plasma composit ion, current, and powder feed rate were systematically varied and particle surface temperatures, velocities, and size distributions measured and stati stically analyzed, In this paper, a mathematical model for the plasma flow and particle characteristics is presented. Model predictions are compared w ith the experimental results in Ref 1 and a reasonable correlation is found . A statistical investigation (composite cubic face (CCF)) is performed on the particle predictions, giving fast and simple relationships between gun parameters and particle in-Right properties, The statistical and theoretica l models that are presented here combine to form a powerful and cost-effect ive tool, which can be used in the evaluation and optimization of spray par ameters off-line.