Similarity Relations for the Electric Arc in Forced Axial Flow

The conservation equations of mass, momentum, and energy in differential form, Ohm's law, and the experimentally determined dependence of the interruption capability of the arc on current shape are employed to obtain similarity relations for high pressure electric arcs in forced axial flow around current zero. The similarity relations are then applied to assess the validity of laminar and turbulent flow models for the arc by comparing model predictions with experiment. It is found that the laminar flow model quite often predicts arc behavior contrary to experiment, while the turbulent flow model predictions are much more consistent with experiment. Moreover, the similarity relations should also be useful in exploring arc behavior under circumstances not discussed in this work.