Power balance at a copper electrode submitted to a non-stationary electric arc in air. Measurement of the amount of liquid metal created and modeling of the heating

Dynamics of the material ejection in a dipolar arc in continuous regime

“…Thus, the ejection of nanometric particles and the vaporization of the electrode surface cannot be taken into account which suggests a greater impact on electric fluctuations. The ratio between liquid and vapor material ejected has already been the subject of studies [15,28]. However these ones are hardly applicable to our study since this ratio depends on many parameters.…”

“…In this paper, we focus on the arc plasma produced by contact separation. In this configuration, depicted in figure 1, the anode is separated from the cathode by using a stepper motor that ensures a regular movement and allows us to fix a displacement speed and the final distance between the electrodes as this is known to impact material ejection [15]. A DC power supply EA-PS 91500-3 is connected to the anode, it can deliver up to 1500 V and 30 A while being able to be regulated in voltage or current depending on our needs.…”

“…Solid particles can be ejected by delamination of deposits or remobilization of particles upon the plasma forces [25]. Besides, a non-negligible amount of cathode material is ejected by vaporization as mentionned by Leblanc et al [15]. Camera can individualize only relatively big particles of a few micrometers and more.…”

“…This paper focuses on the dynamics of the large amount of material ejected when an electric arc is established between two electrodes [15]. The erosion of electrodes during or after the establishment of an arc has been so far mainly studied for industrial applications while this phenomenon has been relatively little studied in the case of arc faults.…”

Estimation of the power flux supplied by an electric arc to Ag-SnO2electrodes based on cross-section observations of the melted zone

“…Two other indirect methods have been proposed. The first one is based on the observation of craters (depth, radius, volume) left by an electric arc on the electrode surface [16] and the other one is based on the measurement, by centrifugation, of the molten metal created by the arc [17]. In this work we propose another method based on the observation after an opening arc of the electrode surface using a 3D optical profilometer and of the melted bath by optical and EBSD observations.…”