Abstract
Vacuum arc consists of cathode spot and mixing zone, arc column and anode zone. The separate jets and the mixing zone should be considered in the model of diffuse arc. Moreover, the interaction between the plasma jets in multi-cathode spot vacuum arc also is very important. In this paper, mixing and interaction of multi-cathode spot vacuum arc jets were studied through simulation. To completely investigate the mixing and interaction of vacuum arc jets, a steady 3D Magneto-Hydro-Dynamic (MHD) modeling was established. In order to find out the influence of different parameters on mixing and interaction of vacuum arc jets, simulations with different parameters such as currents, angel of vacuum arc jets, with or without electromagnetic equations, tilted jets and different height of mixing zone were conducted. The simulation results show that the densities of ion number and plasma pressure as well as ion temperature increase with the increase of arc current, while the plasma velocity decreases. The jet center is more deviated from the cathode center with the increase of angle of tilted jets.
Highlights
Vacuum arc is a metal vapor discharge that produces its own medium by electrode vaporization, which has been widely used in many areas
We investigated the influence of electromagnetic process, current, angle of jets, tilted jet and different height of mixing zone on mixing and interaction of multi-cathode spot vacuum arc jets
We investigated the influence of electromagnetic process, current, angle of jets, and tilted jet on mixing and interaction of multi-cathode spot vacuum arc jets
Summary
Vacuum arc is a metal vapor discharge that produces its own medium by electrode vaporization, which has been widely used in many areas. Some researchers came up with 2D magnetohydro-dynamics (MHD) models.[1] VAs are not completely axial symmetrical configuration especially in commercial electrode systems. Based on this fact, 3D simulation of vacuum arc is needed. Few scholars have made research on modeling of mixing and interaction of multi-cathode spot vacuum arc jets. High-current vacuum arcs were simulated as a whole including separate cathode plasma jets, mixing zone, and common plasma column.[7] One of the shortcomings of the approach in Ref. 7 is they only considered the influence of AMF and two types of cathode boundary conditions (CBCs).
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