Calculation and application of combined diffusion coefficients in thermal plasmas

Abstract

The combined diffusion coefficient method is widely used to treat the mixing and demixing of different plasma gases and vapours in thermal plasmas, such as welding arcs and plasma jets. It greatly simplifies the treatment of diffusion for many gas mixtures without sacrificing accuracy. Here, three subjects that are important in the implementation of the combined diffusion coefficient method are considered. First, it is shown that different expressions for the combined diffusion coefficients, arising from different definitions for the stoichiometric coefficients that assign the electrons to the two gases, are equivalent. Second, an approach is presented for calculating certain partial differential terms in the combined temperature and pressure diffusion coefficients that can cause difficulties. Finally, a method for applying the combined diffusion coefficients in computational models, which typically require diffusion to be expressed in terms of mass fraction gradients, is given.