Magnetohydrodynamic Simulation of Inductively Coupled CO 2 Plasma

A two-dimensional computational code of high power inductively coupled carbon dioxide plasmas (CO2 ICP) produced near atmospheric pressure is developed under thermochemical equilibrium assumptions. A code to compute thermodynamic and transport properties of mixture gases in a wide range of temperature and pressure is also developed. The present study focuses on the transport and chemical processes in the equilibrium CO2 ICP. Influences of different operating parameters, input power, coil excitation frequency, and background pressure on the plasma are examined, as well as the influence of different approximation orders of the Chapman and Enskog theory to calculate the electron transport properties. The results show that the difference in the approximation orders in the electrical conductivity makes a significant difference in the electrical conductivity distribution, but little differences in the temperature and electric field distributions, and in the chemical composition at the outlet. On the other hand, the influence of the difference in approximation orders of electron translational thermal conductivity on the flow characteristics remains small. The temperature distribution is affected the most by varying the power inputs. The chemical composition at the outlet is influenced by the power input and the background pressure, however, influences of coil excitation frequency remains small.