A Numerical Study on Flow Characteristics in HVOF Thermal Spray with Various Torch Shapes

노즐 형상변화에 따른 HVOF 용사총에서의 유동특성에 관한 수치적 연구

HVOF thermal spray guns are now being widely used to produce protective coatings, on the surfaces of engineering components. HVOF technology employs a combustion process to heat the gas flow and melt the coating materials which are particles of metals, alloys or cermets. Particle flow which is accelerated to high velocities and combustion gas stream are deposited on a substrate. In order to obtain good quality coatings, the analysis of torch design must be performed. The reason is that the design parameters of torch influence gas dynamic behaviors. In this study, numerical analysis is performed to predict the gas dynamic behaviors in a HVOF thermal spray gun with various torch shapes. The CFD model is used to deduce the effect of changes in nozzle geometry on gas dynamics. Using a commercial code, FLUENT which uses Finite Volume Method and SIMPLE algorithm, governing equations have been solved for the pressure, velocity and temperature distributions in the HVOF thermal spray torch.