Yu, NanJourdain, RenaudGourma, MustaphaShore, Paul2016-09-272016-09-272016-06-30Yu N, Jourdain R, Gourma M & Shore P (2016) CFD analysis of an enhanced nozzle designed for plasma figuring of large optical surfaces. 16th International Conference of the European Society for Precision Engineering and Nanotechnology (EUSPEN), 30th May - 3rd June 2016, Nottingham, UK.https://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/10598For addressing the correction of Mid Spatial Frequency (MSF) errors on metre scale optical surfaces induced by sub aperture figuring process, a new generation of non-contact plasma based surface figuring tools has been created at Cranfield University. In this context, this paper presents an investigation that focuses on novel enhanced nozzles that were created for a Radio Frequency (RF) Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) torch. The characteristics of plasma jet delivered by prototype nozzle and a selected enhanced nozzle are compared using an in-house created CFD model. The enhanced nozzle design is based on the results previously obtained throughout a numerical analysis that enabled to identify the key design aspects of these nozzles. This enhanced nozzle is predicted to provide 12.5% smaller footprint and 15.5% higher temperature.enAttribution-NonCommercial 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/Plasma jetsurface figuringMSFDe-Laval nozzleenergy beamoptical fabricationmaterial removal footprintConference paper