CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

A stationary, one-dimensional fluid model is presented to describe the interelectrode region of a nonfiltered vacuum arc opereated with background gas. The model includes the electron energy equation and the main elastic and inelastic atomic processes amon metallic ins, electrons and gas particles. To validate the model predictionsan experimental study of the plasma-neutral gas structure, using titanium (Ti) cathode and argon (Ar) as the background gas, is presented. The measured electron temperature and the experimental dependence on the presure of neutral Ti and Ar spectroscopic emission lines are well reproduced, using a simple atomic model to interpret the plasma radiation emission.