This project is part of a much larger project that is supported by the DOE Predictive Science Academic Alliance Program (PSAAP). The UT PSAAP effort is led by the PECOS Center, which is part of the Oden Institute. The overall objective of the project is to develop advanced predictive simulations of inductively-coupled plasma torches that include multiple physical phenomena such as flow and turbulence, high-temperature air chemistry, electromagnetism, thermal non-equilibrium and radiation. A major thrust of the project is to undertake rigorous uncertainty quantification of the simulation, which requires access to validation data relevant to the various phenomena of interest. Our lab will contribute to the experimental validation effort by characterizing the range of operation of the torch, measuring the magnetic field strength inside the torch without plasma, characterizing the velocity field in the torch by using a non-reacting replica, and applying emission and laser spectroscopic methods to infer the state and degree of non-equilibrium under various conditions.
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Lab personnel: Dr. Dan Fries, Dillon Ellender, Chris Madden
Collaborators: Prof. Philip Varghese, Prof. L. Raja
Sponsor: Department of Energy