Modelisation of an argon transferred arc with orifice anode

In this work, different numerical and experimental conditions are applied t o the local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) arc modelisation. The dependenc e of the temperature and velocity fields on the input gas flow, transport c oefficients utilized in calculations, mesh and boundary conditions of the c alculation is studied. It is shown that it is possible to obtain very diffe rent temperature values just closed to the cathode by the manipulation of t he above mentioned input factors. It is also shown that the only possibilit y to obtain temperature values consistent with the experiments, is by setti ng the boundary conditions (heat flux) on the cathode to squeeze the cathod e spot to the diameter observed in previous experiments.