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An Experimental Investigation of the Liquid Flow Induced by a Pulsed Electrical Discharge Plasma

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Abstract

In this work, particle image velocimetry has been used to visualize and quantify plasma-induced flow fields in liquid water. Experiments were performed in a rod-plane plasma reactor with a thin wire electrode suspended above the surface of the liquid in argon gas and a grounded plate immersed in the liquid. The velocity field has been quantified for two types of solutions: (1) aqueous NaCl solutions of varying solution conductivities and discharge frequencies and (2) aqueous NaCl solutions containing varying concentrations of the following four organic compounds: rhodamine B dye, caffeine, fluoxetine, and perfluorooctanoic acid. Results show that in neat water and aqueous caffeine solutions, the liquid is “pulled” along by the interaction of the gas molecules with the liquid molecules at the free surface and thus the direction of the liquid flow is in the direction of the gas phase flow (i.e., away from the discharge location). However, the flow was reversed (i.e., towards the discharge) for those solutions with strong surfactants such as perfluorooctanoic acid. The magnitude of the reversal depended on the initial concentration of the compound and for some compounds as time progressed the reversed flow pattern weakened and then reverted to a normal flow pattern. To determine the most likely cause of these flow reversals, a simple numerical model of the velocity field was developed to estimate relative contributions of various flow inducing mechanisms. The model indicates that in the presence of surfactants, Marangoni stresses are responsible for inducing the flow in the liquid.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the National Science Foundation (Division of Physics, NSF/DOE Partnership in Basic Science and Engineering, Award Number 1617822) for funding this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, Clarkson University, 8 Clarkson Avenue, Potsdam, NY, 13699, USA

    Selma Mededovic Thagard, Gunnar R. Stratton & Mikhail Vasilev

  2. Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Clarkson University, 8 Clarkson Avenue, Potsdam, NY, 13699, USA

    Patrick Conlon & Douglas Bohl

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  1. Selma Mededovic Thagard
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  2. Gunnar R. Stratton
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  3. Mikhail Vasilev
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  4. Patrick Conlon
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  5. Douglas Bohl
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Correspondence to Douglas Bohl.

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Thagard, S.M., Stratton, G.R., Vasilev, M. et al. An Experimental Investigation of the Liquid Flow Induced by a Pulsed Electrical Discharge Plasma. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 38, 719–741 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-018-9905-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-018-9905-3

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