STATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF A CONDUCTION AND RADIATION DOMINATED ELECTRIC-ARC IN NITROGEN

The time-dependent energy and circuit equations are solved numerically to obtain temperature profiles, current-voltage characteristics and e lectric field strength vs axis temperature diagrams in the asymptotic region of a wall-stabilized electric arc operated on nitrogen. The num erical calculations demonstrate the splitting of the rising branch of the stationary solutions in the current-voltage characteristic. This p henomenon was earlier found experimentally for air. The computations w ere made for various channel radii and for various series resistances. We explain the steady-state characteristics and convergence to the si ngle branch of solutions on the basis of the linearized Lyapunov stabi lity theory (LLST). Comparison with available results of other authors shows that the analytical solution based on simple polynomial approxi mations to thermodynamic and transport functions differs significantly from numerical computations.