Macroparticle Dynamics during Multi-Cathode-Spot Vacuum Arcs

Macroparticle dynamics in multi-cathode-spot (MCS) vacuum arcs were studied by utilizing laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) methods for in situ measurement of the cathodic macroparticle velocities and relative emission rates. Arc current pulses having peak values of 1-2 kA at either 6 or 1 ms after arc initiation were investigated. Systematic dependence of the macroparticle dynamics (i.e., speed and direction of flight) on cathodic thermophysical properties, location of the measurement probe in the interelectrode region, instantaneous value of the arc current, arc current waveform, and macroparticle size was determined. It was found that the macroparticle velocity increased with the melting temperature of the cathode metal, distance from the cathode surface, and the instantaneous value of the arc current, and decreased with macroparticle size and the rise time of the current waveform. All the above dependencies may be understood as direct indications of the plasma-macroparticle interaction during the discharge. The measured instantaneous relative emission rates were found to peak later than the arc current but before the peak average cathode surface temperature, which was estimated using a semi-empirical model. This result may be an indication of the dependence of cathodic erosion in the form of molten metal droplets on the average cathode surface temperature.     

Macroparticle filtering of high-current vacuum arc plasmas

The transport of vacuum arc plasmas through a 90° curved magnetic macroparticle filter was investigated using a high-current pulsed arc source with a carbon cathode. The peak arc current was in the kiloampere range, exceeding considerably the level of what has been reported in the literature. The main question investigated was whether magnetic macroparticle filters could be scaled up while maintaining the transport efficiency of small filters. In front of the cathode, we found that arc current dependent total ion saturation currents were in the range from 10% to 23% of the arc current. The best relative transmission was 25% (time integrated output/time integrated input) at a duct wall bias of 12.5 V and at an axial magnetic field of about 100 mT. The measured relative transmission of the used high-current arrangement is comparable to what has been observed with other low-current filters. The absolute measurable ion saturation currents at the filter exit reached 70 A at an arc current of about 1000 A     

Characteristics of Macroparticle Emission from a High-Current-Density Multi-Cathode Spot Vacuum Arc

Macroparticle mass transport, size distribution, and spatial distribution were studied in a 6.5-MA/M2 25-ms Cu multi-cathode spot (MCS) vacuum arc. The macroparticle erosion rate was determined to be 105 ?g/C, and together with ionic emission, accounted for most of the cathodic erosion. The number of macroparticles emitted decreased exponentially with macroparticle diameter, with 20-80-?m macroparticles carrying the bulk of the mass transport. Macroparticles are emitted preferentially at an angle of 20° with respect to the cathode surface. In comparison to previous investigations, higher macroparticle erosion rates, a larger proportion of large macroparticles, and a higher emission angle are observed, and the differences are attributed to the large current density used in the present experiment.     

Time-Resolved Laser Doppler Measurements in the Underexpanded Jet of a Model Gas-Blast Circuit Breaker under Arcing Conditions

A differential laser Doppler system has been used in conjunction with a self-triggered oscillographic raster display system for measuring particle concentrations and flow velocities in a model gas-blast circuit breaker. The flow velocities have been correlated with particle size to enable extrapolation to be made to determine the true plasma flow velocity. The results have been deconvoluted to take account of lateral movements of the arc column. The measurements have been taken with air as the host arcing medium and a flow through a 25-mm-diameter orifice sustained by an upstream pressure of about 7 bar (downstream pressure 1 bar). The arc was sustained by sinusoidal cuffents of peak values 3 and 8 kA and a frequency of 85 Hz. These two currents corresponded to conditions when the model circuit breaker successfully and unsuccessfully interrupted the arc-sustaining current, respectively. The results show that in the case of the 8-kA arc, the flow pattern is severely distorted from that under nonarcing conditions, suggesting that this is a contributory reason for the poorer perfonnance of the model circuit breaker at this higher current level.     

The behavior of vacuum arc discharges on hydrogen impregnatedelectrodes

This paper reports on experimental studies of the behavior of vacuum arcs at hydrogen impregnated electrodes. The arc discharges were analyzed by high speed photography, open shutter photography, measurement of arc voltage and current, and measurements of the erosion in dependence on the level of impregnation for a wide range of arc currents. The results show that impregnation of electrodes with hydrogen reduces the erosion rate, causes smaller crater dimensions, changes the macroparticle size, and decreases the current per spot. For a given current the arc voltage depends on the degree of impregnation. At low current it decreases with increasing impregnation. Furthermore, the arc discharge burns more stable on impregnated electrodes. The total erosion rate decreases significantly due to the reduction of the droplet fraction. The spot movement is faster than on nonimpregnated electrodes     

Photographic appearance of high-current vacuum arcs prior to and during anode spot formation

This article presents the results of research on the photographic appearance of a highcurrent vacuum arc between butt type copper electrodes a of 30–80 mm diameter and a fixed gap of 10 mm. Current pulses of up to 30 kA peak amplitude at an initial value of (di/dt)₀ from 1–10kA/ms and a duration of approximately 14 ms were applied. Arcs were photographed with a high-speed framing camera, mostly at 10⁴ frames/s. A detailed study of discharge modes in phase transition from a high-current diffuse arc to a constricted arc with an anode spot was conducted. Most of the measurements were obtained at a peak current slightly in excess of 10 kA for electrodes of 55 mm diameter. It was found that at peak current exceeding moderately the threshold value of the onset of anode spot formation, the arc is characterized by the following main features: the formation of an anode spot and an anode plasma jet occurs concurrently with a local concentration of cathode spots; the anode spot is, most often, formed on the electrode edge; the coexistence of very varied structures of spots on the cathode; the lack of considerable constriction of the cathode discharge; the pseudo-periodic shrinking and expansion of the area occupied by cathode spots; the existence of a relatively dark space separates the anode plasma jet from the plasma sheath near the cathode surface; the plasma space distribution in the interelectrode gap is non-uniform and non-stationary.This work was supported by State Committee for Scientific Research within the research project No. 3 P40101507.     

Experimental observations of steady anodic vacuum arcs withthermionic cathodes

Stationary plasma discharges have been investigated in a high vacuum ambient (background gas pressure <10^-2 Pa), with an externally heated cathode and a consumable hot evaporating anode. With various anode materials like chromium or copper, and electrode separations between 0.5 and 3 mm, the nonself-sustained discharge operates with DC arc currents in the range of 220 A. The waveform of the arc voltage is strongly influenced by the magnetic field of the cathode heating current, and arc voltages between a minimum of 3 V and a maximum exceeding 100 V have been observed. The voltage-current characteristics (V_CC) and the influence of the electrode separation have been measured separately for the minimum and the maximum of the arc voltages and show a different behavior. The metal plasma expands into the ambient vacuum toward the walls of the vacuum vessel and offers a macroparticle free deposition source of thin films. The arc voltage can be varied by external manipulations of the arc discharge, and the mean ion energy of the expanding metal plasma shows a linear dependence of the mean arc voltage     

Two-dimensional observation of copper vapor in vacuum arcs bylaser-induced fluorescence

The density distribution and the velocity of copper neutral atoms emitted from a single cathode spot in 40 A vacuum arc were measured by the two-dimensional (2-D) laser-induced fluorescence method. The density was calibrated from the two-dimensional fluorescence image observed by a CCD camera. The gap space was almost filled with the copper atoms, and the density reached 5×10¹⁹/m³. We varied the wavelength of the laser light and measured the velocity of the copper atoms emitted from the cathode spot using the effect of Doppler shift. The velocity of the copper atoms was about 10 km/s     

On the macroparticle flux from vacuum arc cathode spots

The macroparticle contamination of vacuum-arc-deposited thin films generated by a plasma source with an optional axial magnetic field is studied. Emphasis is placed on the macroparticle flux near the discharge axis. The arc current, metal species, deposition system geometry and axial magnetic field strength are varied. Distribution functions for macroparticles of Pb, Ag, Cu, Pt, W, and Ni are determined, normalized to the film thickness deposited or the charge transferred. The application of the axial magnetic field leads to a considerable reduction of the normalized macroparticle flux since the plasma is effectively focused by the field, whereas the macroparticle production is not influenced. The macroparticle content normalized to the deposited film thickness is reduced to about 20-35% of that without an additional magnetic field     

紫外激光探针在Z-pinch中的应用北大核心CSCD

报道了基于脉冲宽度为16ns、波长为266nm、总能量为30mJ、时间分辨为1.6ns的紫外激光四分幅阴影成像系统,用于研究Z-pinch产生等离子体与在丝阵负载中心放置塑料泡沫材料相互作用输运规律,研究动态黑腔形成过程的主要物理因素。使用高能高密度激光束透射等离子体,依据等离子体对激光束吸收衰减特性诊断激光束通过等离子体后的空间强度分布,通过理论计算获得等离子体空间密度分布,获得等离子体产生的早期稳定性、箍缩速度等规律。实验研究表明,在X射线峰值前约-25ns等离子体开始压缩塑料泡沫,在峰值前-5ns压缩到最小,之后泡沫开始膨胀。在X射线峰值时刻泡沫直径由3mm压缩到直径约为1mm,对泡沫的最大压缩比约为9倍。实验测量压缩速度约为3.3×10~6 cm/s,并给出了不同时刻的磁流体不稳定结构分布。     

Nonstationary macroparticle charging in an arc plasma jet

The charging of liquid metal macroparticles in the rarified part of a vacuum arc plasma jet is studied. The sheath in the vicinity of the macroparticle is collisionless and the problem with different Debye length to macroparticle radius ratios is analyzed. Maxwellian velocity distribution functions with different temperatures for the electrons and ions in an arbitrary ratio are allowed in the model. By solving the equation for the electric field together with the equation for ion and electron flux, the charging time and the near electric field of the macroparticles were calculated. The kinetics of the macroparticle charging are controlled by the ion and electron flux to the macroparticle, which depend on the potential distribution in the sheath. The potential falls off slower than 1/r² in the case of the large Debye length to macroparticle radius ratio, and falls off more rapidly than 1/r² in the other case. The charge which accumulates on a macroparticle at distances of about 10 cm from a 100-Å cathode is about 10^-16 C and the charging time is about 10^-5 s. The influence of the plasma drift velocity on the macroparticle charging is small. The model presented here agrees well with an experimental study of macroparticle repulsion from biased substrates     

Experimental investigations of the currents collected by metalshields in high-current vacuum arcs

This paper presents experimental results of currents collected on the three-element condensation shield connected to the cathode potential in high-current vacuum arcs. The arc current had 900 Hz, 150 Hz, or 50 Hz half-cycle sinusoidal shapes and was conducted between the CuCr40 contacts with a diameter of 50 mm (cathode) and 30 mm (anode) spaced 10 mm apart. Most of the measurements were made for the current of 900 Hz with peak values up to 9 kA. Arc voltage, floating shield potential, and distribution of shield currents were measured. It was found that the current collected by the shield and also the arc voltage and floating shield potential are greater for higher frequency currents, and that they are affected by the arc mode. Considerable shield current is observed during a high-amplitude (HA) oscillation sequence of arc voltage while its mean value is increased. For 900-Hz arcs at the 9-kA peak value (I_am), the ratio of shield current (i_s) to an instantaneous value of arc current (i_a) reaches even 40% near I_am value. In the initial half-cycle period (before the initiation of high-voltage oscillation), the ratio of i_s/i_a increases with i_a and current frequency. A close relationship was found between arc voltage and current distribution on a three-element shield     

Structure and dynamics of the plasma armature of railgunmacroparticle accelerators

Results of the optical diagnostics of the plasma armature in railgun macroparticle accelerators are summarized. Determining the structure of the plasma armature and measuring its brightness and temperature at an initial stage of high-current discharge are the focus of attention. Experiments show that the plasma induced by the electric explosion of a copper foil undergoes complex variations that include plasma stratification. The plasma structure continuously changes, being of a complicated, irregular character. The lifetime of an individual stratum changes within 1 to 10 μs. In experiments on solid-body acceleration, the arc burns for a long time at the foil site, where a strong electrode erosion takes place. As the body passes through the railgun channel, the plasma armature continuously increases its length so that it gradually occupies the entire accelerator channel. the current is observed to redistribute itself from the front towards the end face of the plasma armature. The maximum brightness temperature measured in the experiments is 26000±2600 K. As is shown by the experiments, it is arguable that a magnetic-compressed discharge may be realized in a railgun solid-body accelerator with a plasma armature     

Arc rotation characteristics of a plasma centrifuge with a counter-rotating electrical discharge

Arc rotation velocities of a plasma centrifuge with a counter-rotating electrical discharge were measured by using double probes placed perpendicular to each other. The measurement results were compared with the results calculated from the analytic solutions suggested by Hong et al. The comparison revealed that the arc column near the electrodes can be rotated much faster by increasing the arc currents and magnetic fields. For example, the rotational velocity of the are column near the electrodes was increased from 75 to 150 m/s with the increase of magnetic flux density from 15 to 45 mT at the fixed arc current of 50 A. On the other hand, the rotational velocity of the arc column showed only negligible changes at the plane of symmetry, where the radial component of the arc current was designed to become zero due to the symmetry of the counter-rotating electrical discharge. From these measurement results and analytic solutions, gaseous mixtures of different masses can be separated effectively near the electrode regions of a plasma centrifuge with a counter-rotating electrical discharge.     

药芯焊丝脉冲TIG电弧增材制造电弧特性研究

对药芯焊丝脉冲TIG电弧增材制造电弧特性展开研究。利用高速摄像拍摄不同熔敷层脉冲电流条件下的电弧与熔滴过渡图片,对高速摄像图片进行分析,发现焊丝熔化过程存在“滞熔”现象,导致熔滴过渡存在渣桥过渡与液桥过渡两种接触过渡方式,在脉冲峰值电流较小的50/100 A电流参数下,出现熔滴断续的渣桥过渡的频率最高。熔滴过渡影响电弧温度场与药粉成分在电弧中的分布,利用光谱诊断分析熔敷过程中在不同脉冲峰值电流与脉冲基值电流条件下电弧温度场及药粉成分在电弧中的分布。利用点阵法测量得到各点光谱数据,根据Boltzmann图法计算各点温度,将各点温度拟合得到完整电弧温度场,结果表明,焊丝从钨极轴线前（左）侧送入,吸收电弧热量并且对电弧有扰动作用,电弧前侧温度低于电弧后（右）侧,电弧前侧尺寸稍小于后侧;随着熔敷层数增加,降低峰值电流,电弧收缩,高温区面积相对减小,低温区面积相对增大。电弧最高温度区域出现在钨极下方1~2 mm的范围,大约为13 000~15 000 K,脉冲峰值电流越大则最高温度区域面积越大。在脉冲基值电流时期,由于电流小,电弧面积相比于峰值时期要小得多,焊丝与电弧相互作用减弱,电弧温度场基本关于钨极轴线对称分布。选择药芯焊丝中特有的Na元素的NaⅠ589.6 nm谱线对其分布点进行标记,拟合绘出不同脉冲峰值电流与基值电流下药粉元素在电弧中的分布情况,结果表明,电流越小,药粉运动高度越低,在不同的脉冲峰值电流下药粉均没有沾染到钨极上,在不同的脉冲峰值电流与脉冲基值电流下 Na元素均偏电弧后侧分布,说明焊丝自电弧前侧送入熔池后,在电弧前侧的电弧中没有出现药粉强烈的喷发现象,而是进入熔池进行冶金反应。接触过渡解决了碱性焊丝工艺性差的问题,电弧较为稳定,避免药粉喷发损伤钨极,熔敷过程稳定进行。     

Time Dependence of Anode Spot Formation Threshold Current in Vacuum Arcs

The variation of threshold current for the transition between the low current quiescent vacuum arc mode, and the high voltage noisy mode associated with anode spot formation, was measured as a function of peak current, current waveform frequency, and electrode separation on fixed diameter (25 mm) Cu and Ni electrodes. At current waveform frequencies of about 60 Hz on Cu electrodes, the threshold current depends mainly on electrode spacing, as has been observed by other investigators. However, at higher waveform frequencies, the threshold current becomes a strong function of peak current as well. At 347 Hz on 25 mm. diam. Cu electrodes separated by 10 mm, the threshold current rose from approximately 2 kA to 5.5 kA, as the peak current rose from 2 kA to 6 kA. At 543 Hz on 25 mm diam Ni electrodes separated by 9 mm, a saturation in threshold current at about 7.5 kA was observed for peak currents greater than 9 kA. Simultaneous anode temperature measurements indicated that the Ni anode surface temperature immediately prior to transition rose from about 1550° K to 2250° K with variations of peak current from 5 kA to 13 kA. Predictions of the variation of threshold current based on random transitions, and on cathode spot migration over the edge of the cathode, are compared with the experimental data.     

显示屏表面空气式静电放电实验特性

显示屏是人机交互的重要部件,当人体静电放电发生在显示屏表面时,有可能导致软硬故障。为了研究显示屏空气式静电放电实验特性,通过一个自制的装置对显示屏空气式静电放电电流和通过显示屏的位移电流进行了实验测量。研究发现:放电电流峰值随接近速度的增加而增加,上升时间随接近速度的增加而减小。在±10~±12 kV电压范围,受电弧长度的影响,上升时间增大,电流峰值变小。随着测量点与放电点之间距离的增大,位移电流波形峰值减小、上升时间增大,正极性放电峰值更大且扩散范围更广,而负极性放电上升时间增大更加明显。由位移电流波形及其分布可以计算出电荷密度。电荷密度随距离放电位置距离的增大而减小。与正极性相比,尽管负极性放电电流峰值较低,但电荷密度较高,说明负极性放电具有造成更高等级损伤风险的危害。     

The Experimental Study of a 100W Copper Vapor Laser

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On the discharge in laser plasma in an external electric field

The possibility of creating discharge in laser plasma in an external electric field with quasi-static current generation along the field is discussed. The knowledge of the quasi-static current generation mechanism in laser plasma, associated with the rarefaction shock wave (RSW), allows the determination of the spatial distribution of these currents during laser irradiation of a planar target. Having included the (planar or cylindrical) target into an external contour, we propose a discharge scheme in laser plasma, where the discharge current increases during the laser pulse.     

10T脉冲磁场的亥姆霍兹线圈热和力分析

亥姆霍兹线圈在产生数十T的准静态脉冲磁场的装置中得到广泛应用。以自行研制的一套用于磁压剪实验技术的脉冲磁场发生系统的亥姆霍兹线圈为研究对象,结合装置的电参数,利用有限元软件ANSYS对装置放电过程中线圈的热和力进行了仿真研究。研究结果表明,当装置在线圈中产生上升时间约1.34 ms、幅值14.37 kA的放电电流和10.7 T的磁场时,线圈中的最大温升约150℃,最大应力近0.5 GPa,铜导线中的最大应力约0.2 GPa,线圈导线变形位移小于0.05 mm。基于分析结果,在线圈制作时,选择绝缘层耐温超过200℃、抗拉强度0.5 GPa的铜导线作为线圈绕线,选择抗拉强度达5.8 GPa的柴龙纤维绕制在铜导线外层进行加固,并制作了相应结构的亥姆霍兹线圈对。利用该线圈对进行的放电实验测试结果表明,在满足设计指标的情况下,线圈对结实可靠,可重复使用。