Spectroscopic Determination of Temperature in Heavy Current Arc Discharge

The spectroscopic method of measuring relative intensities of two spectral lines has been used for determining the temperature of a plasma jet of argon gas and ac arc discharge of heavy current in air. Temperature distribution of the plasma jet was determined by using Abel´s integral equation. The arc temperature of the weighted mean of the whole volume of ac arc discharge attained 35 by 103°K at 50 kA. By employing the measured electric field and temperature, a radius of arc column is calculated to be 2 cm at the same current.