CHESS Seminar Series: "High-fidelity Simulation Framework for Inductively Coupled Plasma Discharges"

Noon CT, March 7, 2022
Virtual

Abstract

Individually coupled plasma (ICP generated by high power inductive discharges offers large volumes of contamination-free plasma for various industrial applications. One of the most important applications of ICPs is testing of thermal protection systems (TPS) for re-entry vehicles which is one of the forefront research areas at CHESS. In order to maximize the utility of ICPs, we need to have a deep understanding and accurate characterization of the plasma flowfield inside the facility. ICPs have quite a complex three-dimensional plasma flowfield with undulating plasma-cold gas interfaces making plasma unstable in the torch as well as the jet region which may lead to unsatisfactory experimental results. In this talk, we present our multiphysics computational framework for studying inductively coupled plasmas wherein a finite volume fluid solver is coupled with a finite element electromagnetic solver to give us a versatile framework to simulate the ICPs in both 2D-axisymmetric as well as 3D configurations. Simulations have been performed under LTE (Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium) as well as NLTE (using multi-T as well as CR model) to study the effect of choice of physico-chemical model on the plasma flowfield. Time-resolved, high order simulations have been able to capture the plasma instabilities often observed in the actual experiments. The studies being carried out using the current framework will give us a better insight to the ongoing physics inside the ICPs and help us to design better experiments

Biography

Sanjeev Kumar is a PhD candidate in the Department of Aerospace Engineering working with Prof. Marco Panesi. He received his bachelor’s degree in 2017 in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati.

Before joining UIUC in 2019, he worked as a Gas turbine operation & maintenance Engineer at Indian Oil Corporation. His current research involves numerical modeling of plasma discharges with focus on studying plasma physics and magneto-hydrodynamic instabilities inside Inductively coupled plasmas.