High-Power RF Plasma Systems for the Elevated Pressure Applications: Single-Torch Versus Multitorch Design

The authors offer a discussion on two alternative approaches to build the high-power radio frequency (RF) plasma systems with apparent power consumption of 400–600 kVA. The first so named “single-torch” approach means one torch and one power supply. The second one named “multitorch” means several simultaneously operating torches on one nozzle or process chamber with total plasma power equal to a sum of all the operating devices, normally from two to three. This is common for many industries, and among the samples are multicylinder internal combustion engines and gas turbines with multiple parallel combustors to name a few. The authors initially offered this approach (Matveev and Serbin, 2020 and Matveev et al., 2019) to improve nonuniformity of the temperature fields for the ablation tests. We believe that the provided discussion will be helpful for the specialists, who consider RF plasma for both aerospace- and land-based applications and need continuously operating plasma sources using a wide variety of plasma gases at pressures over 1 bar.