Optimization of Powder Distribution and Feeding Efficiency Using an Annular Powder-Feeding Nozzle: A Numerical and Experimental Study

Abstract

The quality of spherical powders required in plasma spheroidization is particularly important to advanced manufacturing, such as additive manufacturing and thermal spray coatings. Traditional powder feeding systems, such as radial and coaxial nozzles, often suffer from suboptimal powder distribution, low powder capture efficiency, and poor control of particle trajectories. These issues deteriorate spheroidization quality and material efficiency. We propose here an innovative annular powder-feeding plasma torch for these challenges and to optimize the powder-feeding dynamics. The novel nozzle consists of a tangential powder feeding mechanism and a concentric conical structure that provides uniform powder distribution and minimizes plasma jet interference. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and Discrete Phase Modeling (DPM), combined with a literature review, are used to study such as throat size and convergent-divergent profiles of nozzles for gas-powder interactions. Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) powder was used for the experimental validation of the annular nozzle; the annular nozzle was found to outperform traditional nozzles in this application with a powder capture efficiency of 75%, a deposition efficiency of 92%, and a spheroidization efficiency of 85%; 85% of the particles had a circularity index >0.9. These results indicate that powder distribution uniformity, deposition efficiency, as well as spheroidization quality are greatly improved than those from conventional plasma spheroidization systems, demonstrating the potential for better process performance for plasma spheroidization. These findings demonstrate the relevance of the optimized annular nozzle in the field of high-value material manufacturing as it yields increased coating quality and minimized material wastage.

Keywords

Arc plasma torch / Plasma spheroidization / Annular powder feeding / Computational fluid dynamics / DPM simulation

Author Contributions

M.S.I.: Formal analysis, Project administration, Data curation, Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing—original draft; D.Y.: Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Project administration, Writing—Review & Editing; J.Q.: Formal analysis, Investigation; Y.X.: Supervision, Validation; Y.F.: Supervision, Investigation.

Ethics Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Funding

This research was funded by [the National Natural Science Foundation of China] grant number [52274364] and [the Sichuan Science and Technology Program] grant number[2024ZDZX0039].

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declared that they have no conflicts of interest to this work. We declare that we do not have any commercial or associative interest that represents a conflict of interest in connection with the work submitted.

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