Computer simulation of high current vacuum arc with developed anode spot

Abstract

A self-consistent simulation of anode heating by 4.5 kA vacuum arc during the half-wave of 50 Hz current with 1 m/s contact opening was carried out. The calculations were done in the framework of hybrid high current vacuum arc model, which treats ions and atoms as macroparticles with the help of particle-in-cell methods, but electron subsystem is treated as massless fluid with quasineutrality assumed. The occurrence of an anode plasma plume (similar to that found in experiments) was obtained as a result of modeling. It is shown that the energy flux of line radiation from the interelectrode plasma to the anode is a critical reason of the appearance and maintenance of the anode plume. © 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved.