Xi Chen

Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
cx-dem@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn

Expressions of the heat transfer and/or the drag force for a particle suspended in a thermal plasma flow are required in the modelling of the thermal plasma processing of particulate matter, such as the plasma spraying, the plasma preparation of ultrafine ceramic powders, etc. Many different expressions have been proposed and employed in the literature, showing quite different predicted values. Although many experimental and numerical studies have been conducted for the particle heat transfer and the particle drag force under thermal plasma conditions, no heat transfer and drag force expressions are commonly accepted by the researchers working in this field. The present paper proposes some suggestions concerning how to calculate the particle heat transfer and drag force in the modelling of the thermal plasma processing of particulate matter. For the free-molecule regime (Kn1), which may be met at reduced pressures and/or small particle sizes, analytical expressions obtained recently are recommended. For the jump or near-continuum regime (0