High current arcs in narrow insulating tubes

Pulsed high current arcs in narrow insulating tubes have been studied as high luminosity light sources and high density plasma sources. A first approach to understanding their basic physics has been given for the limiting case of an arc radiating as a blackbody and completely filling the tube. In this paper a more general situation is studied both experimentally and theoretically, in which the radial energy transfer and the vapor layer surrounding the arc are explicitly taken into consideration. Both these phenomena are of general interest to switchgear applications, in particular to arc-wall-interaction phenomena and current limitation problems. (Auth.)