Simulation of the effect of evaporation and gas composition during plasma spheroidization of titanium particles

Abstract

A 3D model was proposed that describes the in-flight behavior of titanium particles in the plasma environment, developed in the commercial CFD Ansys Fluent software, which described the heating of particles. The rate of evaporation was investigated based on the gas compositions, and the mass evaporated on the surface of the particle along the trajectory under plasma conditions. To evaluate the spheroidization rate of titanium particles, the calculated temperature and flow histories were established. Significant heat exchange behaviors are presented due to the variations in hydrogen content and feed rate. The simulation results have demonstrated that the range of 0-4% of H2 and at a low injection feed rate of 3-10 g/min minimized the evaporation rate and increased the spheroidization rate of particles.