K e y w o r d s : gas-shielded arc welding using consumable and non-consumable electrode, dynamic arc, mathematical model, power balance, investigations There are number of dynamic arc models at present time. Therefore, the researchers when solving the specific tasks on investigation of processes in power source-welding arc system face with the problem of selection of a model providing complete description of the main arc peculiarities in each specific case. This paper is dedicated to objective estimation and comparison of models of dynamic arc and elaboration of recommendations for model selection on this basis.Some progress in description of welding arc of constant length (non-consumable electrode) as part of electric circuit was achieved using mathematical model of dynamic arc, developed at the E.O. Paton Electric Welding Institute (PWI-MA) [1]. PWI-MA was further developed in works [2,3]. Arc column in PWI-MA has been phenomenological considered as heat inertial macroobject, for which the following power balance is valid:where Q is the internal energy of arc column; P and P θ is the input and output power, respectively. All isoenergetic identical states in PWI-MA are characterized by one parameter, i.e. arc state current i θ [1,3]. It determines such characteristics of the arc column as static resistanceand output powerwhere U col is the function defining static voltampere characteristic (SVAC) of the arc column. Input power is determined by arc column resistance as well as value of its transitional current:Voltage on the arc column in dynamic is found from expressionState current i θ for any representative point on plane, corresponding to arc column dynamic states in the coordinates of arc column voltage arc current (u col , i), is determined as x-coordinate of cross point of beam from the origin, passing through this point, with arc column SVAC. Work [3] shows that PWI-MA equation in differential form [2] corresponds to energy balance equation (1):which is electroengineering analog of equation (1). At that internal energy of arc column equalswhere θ is the time constant of arc column.Since all other models use such a value as arc column conductivity g [4], PWI-MA equation * Translation of paper from «Avtomaticheskaya Svarka» Journal, 1989, No. 2, pp. 33-36. Monitoring of references to the papers, published in this Journal, showed that paper of I.V. Pentegov and V.N. Sydorets is one of the most cited in area of welding arc modelling. It is dedicated to comparison of dynamic model of arc, being developed at the E.O. Paton Electric Welding Institute, with other models and is still of high interest up to the present moment. Unfortunately, «Avtomaticheskaya Svarka» Journal was not translated in English in 1989. However, current reality of the world scientific community necessitates publications in English. Therefore, the Editorial Board of the Journal has made a decision to publish this paper in «The Paton Welding Journal» in order to make it more accessible to wider audience of researchers, post-graduate st...