Study of the expansion characteristics of a pulsed plasma jet in air

Abstract

In the background of electrothermal-chemical (ETC) emission, an investigation has been conducted on the characteristics of a freely expanding pulsed plasma jet in air. The evolutionary process of the plasma jet is experimentally investigated using a piezoelectric pressure sensor and a digital high-speed video system. The variation relation in the extended volume, axial displacement and radial displacement of the pulsed plasma jet in atmosphere with time under different discharge voltages and jet breaking pressures is obtained. Based on experiments, a two-dimensional axisymmetric unsteady model is established to analyze the characteristics of the two-phase interface and the variation of flow-field parameters resulting from a pulsed plasma jet into air at a pressure of 1.5–3.5 MPa under three nozzle diameters (3 mm, 4 mm and 5 mm, respectively). The images of the plasma jet reveal a changing shape process, from a quasi-ellipsoid to a conical head and an elongated cylindrical tail. The axial displacement of the jet is always larger than that along the radial direction. The extended volume reveals a single peak distribution with time. Compared to the experiment, the numerical simulation agrees well with the experimental data. The parameters of the jet field mutate at the nozzle exit with a decrease in the parameter pulse near the nozzle, and become more and more gradual and close to environmental parameters. Increasing the injection pressure and nozzle diameter can increase the parameters of the flow field such as the expansion volume of the pulsed plasma jet, the size of the Mach disk and the pressure. In addition, the turbulent mixing in the expansion process is also enhanced.