Comparisons of Experimental and Theoretical Arc Column Characteristics

The integration of the energy equation for air flow through an arc column is conducted for the inlet vortex chamber of a constricted arc. The resulting relationships among temperature, flow rate, current, voltage gradient and arc geometry are compared with the measured quantities. The temperatures were obtained spectrographically while the other parameters were measured in more routine fashion. The correlation between theory and experiment is fair to good but requires further refinement.