Investigation of the Anode Boundary Layer of an Atmospheric Pressure Argon Arc

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This paper is concerned with the thermodynamic state of the plasma in the anode region of a high intensity arc. Spectrometric studies of the boundary layer in front of a plane anode perpendicular to the axis of a wall-stablized, high-intensity arc in argon atmosphere indicate substantial deviations from LTE. Data taken at distances of 0.5 to 2 mm from the anode surface are evaluated with two different but not entirely independent non-equilibrium data reduction techniques in order to obtain radial distributions of electron temperature and electron density. The electron temperature distribution displays an off-axis peak which increases in magnitude with decreasing distance from the anode. Both electron temperatures and electron densities are considerably higher than the corresponding LTE values.