2-D axially symmetric hydrodynamic model has been developed to describe the formation of a crater and liquid-metal jets on a vacuum arc cathode using Navier-Stokes equations for an incompressible viscous fluid with a free surface and a heat conduction equation taking convective heat transfer into account. The formation of an elemental crater on a copper cathode during the operation of a cathode spot cell has been numerically simulated by varying the heat flux and the pressure produced by the cathode spot plasma. Based on the simulation results, we can distinguish three different modes of the crater formation process: 1) no splashing; 2) inertial splashing; and 3) active splashing. It has been shown that a crater with metal jets forced away can be formed within 30 ns of plasma action if the heat flux density is above 10 12 W/m 2 and the pressure is above 10 8 Pa.
A numerical two-dimensional non-stationary model is developed to study the initiation of new explosive center beneath the plasma of a vacuum arc cathode spot. The process of heating of a cathode surface microprotrusion has been simulated numerically. The obtained results of this paper show that taking into account the ion impact heating and the electric field of the space charge zone near the cathode surface ensure the "triggering" heat flux power necessary for the development of the Joule heating of the microprotrusion followed by it explosion at reasonable values of the ion current and of the geometric parameters of the microprotrusion.
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