Thermodynamic Properties and Transport Coefficients of CO₂–Cu Thermal Plasmas

This paper presents the calculated values of equilibrium compositions, thermodynamic properties and transport coefficients (viscosity, electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity) for CO₂–Cu thermal plasmas. With several copper mass proportions, the calculation is performed at temperatures 2000–30,000 K and various pressures 0.1–16 bar. Gibbs free energy minimization is used to determine species compositions and thermodynamic properties and the well-known Chapman–Enskog method is applied to calculating transport properties. Furthermore, great attention is paid to cope with the interactions between all the particles in the determination of collision integrals. The results are illustrated indicating the effect of the copper proportions and pressure on the fundamental properties of CO₂–Cu thermal plasmas. It can be found that a small quantity of copper (less than 10 %) can significantly modify the charged species densities and electrical conductivity especially at low temperature. While for other properties, the influences can be noticeable only when the copper proportion is above 10 %.