Definition of a New Level One Test Case Measurements of Equilibrium Radiation from an Inductively Coupled Plasma in the Near-UV to Near-IR Spectral Region for a Titan-Type N2-CH4 Mixture. Preliminary Results

TL;DR

This paper presents a new test case for measuring equilibrium radiation from a Titan-like N2-CH4 plasma using an inductively coupled plasma torch, with spectral analysis and preliminary nanostructure synthesis results.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental setup and methodology for spectral measurement of N2-CH4 plasma in the near-UV to near-IR range, extending previous test cases.

Findings

Spectral measurements calibrated and compared with SPARTAN code.

Observation of nucleation phenomena in the plasma.

Preliminary nanostructured carbon synthesis on quartz.

Abstract

A test case, using a similar methodology and experimental set-up than previous test case TC5-Level 1 is presented in this paper. An inductively coupled plasma torch, working at atmospheric pressure, is used to create N2-CH4 Titan-like plasma (98%N2 - 2%CH4). The operating frequency and power are 64 MHz and 3 kW respectively. This kind of apparatus allows obtaining plasma in chemical and quasi-thermal equilibrium The spectral measurements cover the [300-800] nm range and are performed inside the induction coil. Each interesting spectrum is calibrated and compared to the line-by-line spectral code SPARTAN used for the simulation of the radiative emission of entry-type plasma. Finally, a discussion is proposed about the nucleation phenomenon which is occurred in the ICP torch with the N2-CH4 plasma. Preliminary studies show the synthesis of nanostructured carbon on the quartz tube.