NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF SUBSONIC TWISTED JETS OF HIGH-ENTHALPY AIR AT OPERATING PARAMETERS OF THE VGU-4 HF PLASMATRON

The influence of the anode supply power of the HF generator (30–70 kW) and pressure (50–200 mbar) on the flow past a cylindrical model with a diameter of 50 mm of a subsonic high-enthalpy air jet flowing from the discharge channel into the test chamber of the VGU-4 HF plasma torch (IPMech RAS) was studied. A comparison of the calculations of the axisymmetric flow past the model based on the full Navier–Stokes equations was performed, with and without taking into account the tangential component of the velocity (swirling). It was found that the power of the HF generator is a key factor determining changes in the structure and characteristics of the flow when taking into account the swirling. The property of conservatism of the normalized hydrodynamic characteristics of subsonic high-enthalpy air jets — the distributions of parameters in the outlet section of the discharge channel and along the jet axis — was established. The obtained matrix of dimensionless parameters at the outer edge of the boundary layer provides the possibility of calculating heat transfer to the stagnation point of the model within the framework of the one-dimensional problem autonomously without preliminary calculation of the axisymmetric flow around the model by a subsonic jet of viscous high-enthalpy air.

HF plasmatron, numerical modeling, subsonic high-enthalpy jet, flow swirl