Radiative energy losses from a high-current air-blast arc

The importance of total radiation losses from high-current arcs burning in highly accelerated air flows representative of conditions existing in commercial gas-blast switchgear has been investigated. Such losses have been measured both in the high-pressure region upstream of a shaped orifice, where gas velocities are low, and in the region downstream where velocities become supersonic and pressure conditions approach ambient. The dominance of upstream electrode vapor as the source of plasma radiation losses is demonstrated and the importance of radiated losses within the arc energy balance is examined using measured values of axial electric field. For upstream electrodes of elkonite (sintered copper/tungsten) as used in high-power gas-blast circuit breakers, it is shown that some 30--40% of the electrical energy input upstream of the orifice is lost as radiation, while downstream this figure becomes 10--20%. The effect of reservoir pressure on arc electric fields is examined and the contribution to this effect of radiation losses is quantified