Thermal plasma properties for Ar-Al, Ar-Fe and Ar-Cu mixtures used in welding plasmas processes: I. Net emission coefficients at atmospheric pressure

This article is devoted to the calculation of the net emission coefficient (NEC) of Ar-Al, Ar-Fe and Ar-Cu mixtures at atmospheric pressure for arc welding processes. The results are given in data tables for temperatures between 3 kK and 30 kK, for five plasma thicknesses (0, 0.5, 1, 2, 5 mm) and ten concentrations of metallic vapours (pure gas, 0.01%, 0.1%, 1%, 5%, 10%, 25%, 50%, 75% and pure metal vapours in mass proportions). The results are in good agreement with most of the works published on the subject for such mixtures. They highlight the influence of three parameters on the radiation of the plasma: the NEC is directly related to temperature and inversely related to plasma radius and is highly sensitive to the presence of metal vapours. Finally, numerical data are supplied in tables in order to develop accurate computational modelling of welding arc and to estimate both qualitatively and quantitatively the influence of each metallic vapour on the size and on the shape of the weld pool.