of an issue for large robust steel structures the physics of the process is not one dimensional 1 d in fact it is strongly 2 d compare fig5 and 6 in fig5 the ablated vapor 15 comes off the surface initially with essentially no parallel velocity along the surface this 1 d behavior is more characteristic of ablation using a laser pulse the ablated material forms a vapor barrier which strongly absorbs the incoming radiation the very high power flux of lasers means this occurs on a time scale short compared to the pulse width pulsed plasma jet ablation as shown in fig6 is quite different from laser ablation or flash uv in that the fluid dynamic forces play an important role in reducing overall energy requirements the heat flux is aided by the fluid dynamic forces of the plasma jet 31 which scours the surface 1 reducing the required heat flux the stagnation zone recovers much of the temperature and pressure in the capillary as soon as the surface of the paint starts to soften erosion becomes an effective removal mechanism in fig6 the incident gas flow has a stagnation point on the axis of the jet and is redirected to flow parallel to the surface in the ablation region this is a high speed radial outflow increasing from identically zero at the stagnation point to 2 3 km s at the periphery of.