A model for additive transport in metal halide lamps containing mercury and dysprosium tri-iodide

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The distribution of additives in a metal halide lamp is examined through numerical modelling. A model for a lamp containing sodium iodide additives has been modified to study a discharge containing dysprosium tri-iodide salts. To study the complex chemistry the method of Gibbs minimization is used to decide which species have to be taken into account and to fill lookup tables with the chemical composition at different combinations of elemental abundance, lamp pressure and temperature. The results from the model with dysprosium additives were compared with earlier results from the lamp containing sodium additives and a simulation of a pure mercury lamp. It was found that radial segregation creates the conditions required for axial segregation. Radial segregation occurs due to the unequal diffusion of atoms and molecules. Under the right conditions convection currents in the lamp can cause axial demixing. These conditions depend on the ratio of axial convection and radial diffusion as expressed by the Peclet number. At a Peclet number of unity axial segregation is most pronounced. At low Peclet numbers radial segregation is at its worst, while axial segregation is not present. At large Peclet numbers the discharge becomes homogeneously mixed. The degree of axial segregation at a Peclet number of unity depends on the temperature at which the additive under consideration fully dissociates. If the molecules dissociate very close to the walls no molecules are transported by the convective currents in the lamp, and hence axial segregation is limited. If they dissociate further away from the walls in the area where the downward convective currents are strongest, more axial segregation is observed.