Investigation of the aluminum electrodes erosion of a plasma gun during the operation of a high-current vacuum arc discharge

Abstract

The aim of this work was to obtain magnitude quantitative estimates of the “closed-type” plasma gun aluminum electrodes erosion that occurs during the course of a high-current vacuum arc discharge. The experimental setup consisted of two current generators. The first generator capable of generating a current with an amplitude of up to 450 kA and a rise time of 500 ns was used as a current source for a plasma gun. The second one was used as an X-ray radiograph to visualize the object under study in the soft X-ray range (hv ≈ 0.5–3 keV). Quantitative distributions of the plasma linear mass are obtained both along the radius and along the length of the jet at different times. It was shown that the erosion properties of the electrode material are related to the current characteristics of the arc discharge current.