Investigation and Comparison of In-Flight Particle Velocity During the Plasma-Spray Process as Measured by Laser Doppler Anemometry and DPV-2000

Plasma spraying has become one of the most important thermal-spray technologies due to low operating costs, high deposition rates, and a high efficiency. It is especially suitable for producing coatings used to improve thermal, corrosion, and wear protection. The quality of coatings produced by thermal-spray processes are determined by particle characteristics, such as in-flight velocity, which can be investigated using various diagnostic systems. Velocity is a particularly relevant parameter for small particles, but it is difficult to measure. Hence, different velocity diagnostics must be validated for small injected particles. We compared the laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) system with the DPV-2000 system and measured the particle velocities of a F4 plasma torch. The results agreed well when the limited detectability of small particles by LDA was taken into account.