Newsgroups: sci.physics.plasma
From news@news.tuwien.ac.at Wed Jul 10 08:50:22 1996
From: stoeri@iap.tuwien.ac.at (Herbert Stoeri)
Organization: TU Wien
Subject: Re: Air Arc Process

In article <4rr5e9$6jk@mojo.eng.umd.edu>, Art Krenzel <akrenzel@sisna.com>
wrote:

> I would like to determine the things which can cause the loss of an
> established arc at high (10,000 Volts) and high current (1,000 amps).
> Does the presence of moisture as vaporizing liquid droplets reduce the
> arc stability? Would the loss of fresh ionizable particulates reduce the
> stability of the plasma? Can the Plasma be drawn away from the shortest
> electronic path between electrodes and snuffed out? Can I overload the
> plasma with nonconductors and snuff it out without resorting to a vacuum?
> Could I cause a small explosion in the arc path and cause it to lose the
> arc?
>
> Hope someone out there can speculate with me.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Art
If the arc has an operating voltage of 10.000 Volts at 1000 Amps, it has
to be fairly long. I would expect it to be in the meter range. It could be
disturbed by magnetic instabilities or by the flow of air. I expect, you
can blow it out by a sufficiently fast flow of air. Magnetic instabilities
will cause it to curl and wind, as the magnetic pressure is higher on the
inside of a piece of curved arc channel compared to the outside. It would
be rather difficult, to interrupt the arc with any piece of material,
given the power of 10MW. It will most likely vaporize your insulator.

Herbert Stoeri
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