A study of microscopic model of the arc plasma at equilibrium in sealed relay

A microscopic model of the arc plasma burning in sealed relay is proposed in this paper. In this model, the arc plasma is assumed to be in stable, and all of the compounds existing in the plasma are proposed to be in gas state. The velocity distribution of arc plasma particles obeys Maxwellian distribution, while local thermodynamic equilibrium state is taken into account. By this model, the microscopic parameters of arc burning on Cu contact protected by high purity nitrogen gas are calculated in two different environments: pure nitrogen without and with certain metal vapor. The results show that the change of the ratio between nitrogen and copper vapor does little influence on number densities in the arc plasma while nitrogen is the principal part.