Numerical simulation of the screw shape of an electric arc in an external axial magnetic field

Abstract

The characteristics of an electric arc of a direct current, burning in a cylindrical channel in a uniform external axial field, are numerically computed within a nonstationary three-dimensional mathematical model at partial local thermodynamic equilibrium. A method for the numeric modeling of the screw shape of an arc in this field is suggested. This approach is in addition to the “network” analogue of fluctuations for the temperature of electrons, which increases weak numeric asymmetry of electron temperature distribution that occurs randomly during computation. This asymmetry can be “picked up” by an external magnetic field and continue to increase up to a certain value, which is enough to form an arc column screw structure. If there are no fluctuations in the computation algorithm of fluctuations, the arc column in an external axial magnetic field maintains cylindrical axial symmetry and the arc screw shape is not observed.