Numerical Investigation of Supersonic Hybrid Argon–Water-Stabilized Arc for Biomass Gasification

This paper presents a numerical simulation of temperature and flow fields in the discharge and near outlet regions of the hybrid argon–water-stabilized electric arc. The calculations for an argon mass flow rate of 0.450 $\hbox{g}\cdot\hbox{s}^{-1}$ reveal the transition from a transonic plasma flow for 400 A to a supersonic one for 600 A with the maximum Mach number of 1.57. The comparison with available experimental data for 400 A shows satisfactory agreement.