Convective instability of an electric discharge

Stability of conducting medium flows between plane continuous electrodes inclined to the horizon

“…Superheating-convection instability of the discharge for isothermal equipotential electrodes was considered earlier in [9] by neglecting the near-electrode drops of the electric potential in the case of the horizontally located layer of a conducting medium. This corresponds to the angle α = π/2 (Fig.…”

“…The upper pairs of curves 1 and 2 corresponds to the vertical layer, the lower pairs of curves 3 and 4 to the layer inclined at 45 ∘ . In the case of horizontally located electrode plates (as in [9]) V ≡ 0. We can see that the intensity of convection flow increases with inclination of the electrodes to the horizon (this corresponds to the angle π/2 − α).…”

“…However, convection flows of the interelectrode medium can develop in real discharges (in the presence of the gravity field), as a result of the development of convection due to the presence of a volume heat source [7,8], in particular, in the form of Joule dissipation. In the case of ideal electrodes (isothermal and equipotential ones) superheating-convection discharge instability was studied in [9] when neglecting near-electrode losses of the electric anode and cathode potentials (U a = U c = 0). However, in real discharges which have thermal and electric resistances [10] the instability development pattern can differ from the pattern obtained in [9] and first of all due to the possible interaction between the superheating and convection instability modes and changes in the instability boundaries (neutral curves).…”

“…In the case of ideal electrodes (isothermal and equipotential ones) superheating-convection discharge instability was studied in [9] when neglecting near-electrode losses of the electric anode and cathode potentials (U a = U c = 0). However, in real discharges which have thermal and electric resistances [10] the instability development pattern can differ from the pattern obtained in [9] and first of all due to the possible interaction between the superheating and convection instability modes and changes in the instability boundaries (neutral curves). The radical difference between the problem considered and the problems [7][8][9] consists in an arbitrary angle α of inclination of the electrode plates and the dependence of the volume heat source on the temperature T .…”

“…However, in real discharges which have thermal and electric resistances [10] the instability development pattern can differ from the pattern obtained in [9] and first of all due to the possible interaction between the superheating and convection instability modes and changes in the instability boundaries (neutral curves). The radical difference between the problem considered and the problems [7][8][9] consists in an arbitrary angle α of inclination of the electrode plates and the dependence of the volume heat source on the temperature T . The importance of taking inclination of the electrodes to the direction of the gravity force into account was shown earlier experimentally [11].…”