Investigation of particle in-flight characteristics during atmospheric plasma spraying of yttria stabilized ZrO2: Part 2. modeling

Yttria stabilized ZrO₂ particle in-flight characteristics in an Ar-H₂ atmospheric plasma jet have been studied using analytical and experimental techniques. In the previous article,^[1] the primary gas flow, plasma composition, current, and powder feed rate were systematically varied and particle surface temperatures, velocities, and size distributions measured and statistically analyzed. In this paper, a mathematical model for the plasma flow and particle characteristics is presented. Model predictions are compared with the experimental results in Ref 1 and a reasonable correlation is found. A statistical investigation (composite cubic face (CCF)) is performed on the particle predictions, giving fast and simple relationships between gun parameters and particle in-flight properties. The statistical and theoretical models that are presented here combine to form a powerful and cost-effective tool, which can be used in the evaluation and optimization of spray parameters off-line.