Considerable progress has been made over the last decades in thermal spray technologies, practices and applications. However, like other technologies, they have to continuously evolve to meet new problems and market requirements. This article aims to identify the current challenges limiting the evolution of these technologies and to propose research directions and priorities to meet these challenges. It was prepared on the basis of a collection of short articles written by experts in thermal spray who were asked to present a snapshot of the current state of their specific field, give their views on current challenges faced by the field and provide some guidance as to the R&D required to meet these challenges. The article is divided in three sections that deal with the emerging thermal spray processes, coating properties and function, and biomedical, electronic, aerospace and energy generation applications.
An extended-field (EF), two dimensional (2D) model formulation is
proposed for inductively coupled plasma. By extending the calculating domain
of the electromagnetic (EM) field outside of the plasma discharge region, the
boundary conditions of vector potential used by the standard (ST) 2D model are
replaced by simpler far field boundary conditions. The extended model
converges faster than the standard formulation and gives rise to consistent
solutions throughout the computational domain. Vector potential equations are
solved with corresponding continuity, momentum, and energy transfer equations
using the commercial code `FLUENT'. The computational domain for vector
potential equations are extended well beyond the induction coil region, while
for all the other equations, computations are limited to the discharge region
inside the plasma confinement tube. The computational results are compared
with those obtained using the ST 2D model. The difference between the results
of the two models is noted mostly in the entrance regions of the flow, and
close to the induction coil. To validate the EF model, a load with constant
electric conductivity is placed centrally in the coil region and the
calculated radial profile of the axial magnetic field is compared with
existing analytical solutions. The results are in good agreement within an
uncertainty of 1%.
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