Heat transfer in swirling compressible plasma columns

The complete set of highly nonlinear equations, describing the axisymmetric swirling pipe flow of a viscous and compressible fluid, with heat addition, heat sources, and with variable thermodynamic- and transport properties, is solved with the aid of a finite difference method, using the parabolic quasi-cylindric approximation of the Navier-Stokes equations. Besides the Mach number, the Reynolds number, and the Prandtl number, three new similarity parameters are introduced, which can be used to correlate the dimensionless results. The method is applied on the transport processes in a wall- and vortex stabilized electric arc. The influence of the swirl, especially on the heat transfer, is investigated in two different ranges of pressure.