Electrical characteristics of a 1 cm-long free-burning atmospheric-pressure argon arc are calculated by means of a model taking into account the existence of a near-cathode space-charge sheath and the discrepancy between the electron and heavy-particle temperatures in the arc column. The computed arc voltage exhibits a variation with the arc current I similar to the one revealed by the experiment and exceeds experimental values by no more than approximately 2 V in the current range 20-175 A. The sheath contributes about two-thirds or more of the arc voltage. The LTE model predicts a different variation of the arc voltage with I and underestimates the experimental values appreciably for low currents but by no more than approximately 2 V for I 120 A. However, the latter can hardly be considered as a proof of unimportance of the space-charge sheath at high currents: the LTE model overestimates both the resistance of the bulk of the arc column and the resistance of the part of the column that is adjacent to the cathode, and this overestimation to a certain extent compensates for the neglect of the voltage drop in the sheath. Furthermore, if the latter resistance were evaluated in the framework of the LTE model in an accurate way, then the overestimation would be still much stronger and the obtained voltage would significantly exceed those observed in the experiment.
Three approaches to description of separation of charges in near-cathode regions of high-pressure arc discharges are compared. The …rst approach employs a single set of equations, including the Poisson equation, in the whole interelectrode gap. The second approach employs a fully non-equilibrium description of the quasi-neutral bulk plasma, complemented with a newly developed description of the space-charge sheaths. The third, and the simplest, approach exploits the fact that a signi…cant power is deposited by the arc power supply into the near-cathode plasma layer, which allows one to simulate the plasma-cathode interaction in the …rst approximation independently of processes in the bulk plasma. It is found that results given by the di¤erent models are in a generally good agreement, and in some cases the agreement is even surprisingly good. It follows that the predicted integral characteristics of the plasma-cathode interaction are not strongly a¤ected by details of the model provided that the basic physics is right.
The model of a collisionless near-cathode space-charge sheath with ionization of atoms emitted by the cathode surface is considered. Numerical calculations showed that the mathematical problem is solvable and its solution is unique. In the framework of this model, the sheath represents a double layer with a potential maximum, with the ions which are produced before the maximum returning to the cathode surface and those produced after the maximum escaping into the plasma. Numerical results are given in a form to be readily applicable in analysis of discharges burning in cathode vapour, such as vacuum arcs. In particular, the results indicate that the ion backflow coefficient in such discharges exceeds 0.5, in agreement with values extracted from the experiment.
This work is concerned with devising a method of evaluation of electron emission in the framework of the Murphy-Good theory, which would be as simple and computationally efficient as possible while being accurate in the full range of conditions of validity of the theory. The method relies on Pad e approximants. A comparative study of electron emission from cathodes of arcs in ambient gas and vacuum arcs is performed with the use of this method. Electron emission from cathodes of arcs in ambient gas is of thermionic nature even for extremely high gas pressures characteristic of projection and automotive arc lamps and is adequately described by the Richardson-Schottky formula. The electron emission from vaporizing (hot) cathodes of vacuum arcs is of thermo-field nature and is adequately described by the Hantzsche fit formula. Since no analytical formulas are uniformly valid for field to thermo-field to thermionic emission, a numerical evaluation of the Murphy-Good formalism is inevitable in cases where a unified description of the full range of conditions is needed, as is the general case of plasma-cathode interaction in vacuum arcs, and the technique proposed in this work may be the method of choice to this end. V
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