Heating of Metal Products in a Low Pressure Air Capacitive Discharge A.G.Shishkin1, G.G.Shishkin2, A.P.Plokhih3 and G.V.Soganova3

The low pressure capacitive radio frequency air discharge used for the processing of metal products and instruments is considered. Two forms of discharge for different discharge tube length is observed. The distribution of optical emission intensity along the discharge axis as well as plasma density and electron temperature calculated by V-I probe characteristics for different values of discharge gap and discharge power is obtained. The heating of thin steel tube being under floating potential is measured for different discharge pressures and specific powers. It has been observed that the lower is discharge pressure the higher is the temperature of steel tube for pressures under investigation. The two-dimensional thermal conductivity equation is solved consistently with ion kinetic equation. The time dependence of temperature and its distribution in the processed products are obtained. Experimental and calculated results are in a satisfactory agreement. 1