Experimental study on dynamic characteristics of charged particles in vacuum arc

Abstract The vacuum arc is essentially a process of evaporation, collision and ionization of metal materials to keep burning. Electron temperature and density are important parameters to describe vacuum arc plasma transport. This paper was based on the theory of continuous spectral radiation, combined with the principle of two-colorimetric temperature measurement, and realized 2D calculation and observation of electron temperature and density. The experimental platform for vacuum arc breaking and an optical image acquisition system were established to achieve synchronous acquisition of two wavelengths of arc by imaging separation method. On the basis of partial local thermodynamic equilibrium hypothesis, and obtained the 2D dynamic distribution of the electron temperature and density. The results showed that electron density decayed along the radial direction and the density near anode was lower in the axial direction. The 2D distribution trend of electron temperature was opposite to the density. Electron temperature had a little change and the electron density expands outward in different arcing times. With the increase of current amplitude, the peak value of electron density increased, and the electron density in the arc gap also increased. The measured results could reflect the formation and movement of microscopic particles at the initial diffusion stage.