Construcci\'on de un reactor de nitruraci\'on por plasma y simulaci\'on de la distribuci\'on de temperaturas

TL;DR

This paper presents the design, experimental validation, and numerical simulation of a plasma reactor for ion nitriding, focusing on temperature distribution and heat transfer mechanisms to improve process control.

Contribution

It introduces a new cathode design and reactor setup, along with a simulation method for analyzing temperature distribution during plasma nitriding.

Findings

The new cathode design reduces electric field edge effects.

Simulation results align with experimental temperature measurements.

Conduction is confirmed as the primary heat transfer mechanism.

Abstract

Ion nitriding and ion carburising by plasma discharges are promising techniques in order to modify the surface of austenitic steels. Plasma treatments improve mechanical properties, e.g., hardness and wear resistance. Indeed, these techniques do not change the natural austenitic properties, like corrosion resistance. Hidden parameters of the system are very important in order to do a good characterization and a good experimental reproducibility. In this work a new cathode design has been done and it is placed in a new plasma reactor. The electric field edge effect has been discarded in the austenitic samples thanks to a special lodging procedure. After an experimental validation of this new set-up, a numerical simulation has been carried out. Temperature distribution has been analyzed using the cathode-molecular nitrogen collision method. Under these assumptions, reactor cooling is a key issue. This simulation has been done after the resolution of the Laplace equation with the parallel Jacobi method. Finally, using optical emission spectroscopy it has been verified that the heat transfer mechanism is the conduction and the experimental data have been compared with simulation data.