Two-dimensional turbulent heat and fluid flow model to study effect of working gas and other process parameters on heat transfer in plasma furnace

A two-dimensional heat and fluid flow model was used to simulate the plasma arc furnace, where the flow is governed by the steady state incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. The flow has been taken as turbulent and the standard k-epsilon model was used to simulate the turbulence in the flow. The coupled non-linear differential equations were solved with suitable boundary conditions and temperature dependent plasma properties at atmospheric pressure by employing an efficient finite volume method. The calculations and heat transfer to various parts of the furnace were calculated for argon, nitrogen and hydrogen plasmas. The voltage-current characteristic for the different types of plasma and the effect of other process parameters on heat transfer are discussed.