Abstract
The primary aim of this work is to develop an emulator to accurately simulate the dynamic behavior of a plasma torch. To that end, a nonlinear autoregressive model with exogenous inputs was designed around a mono-cathode torch used for atmospheric plasma spraying. Operating parameters such as current and gas flow rate were used as input variables and in-flight particle characteristics were used as output variables. In order to compensate for unstable and random process phenomena, data smoothing is used to decrease signal noise and improve data relevance. This is a key step as it allows most of the in-flight particle properties to be processed. Prior to implementation in the emulator, the smoothed data are optimized to get the best possible match with actual measured values. With the refined data, the difference between simulated and measured particle temperature and velocity is less than 3%.
