EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE CURRENT DENSITY AND 
THE HEAT-FLUX DENSITY IN THE CATHODE ARC SPOT
A. M. Esipchuk,a A. Marotta,a and
L. I. Sharakhovskiib

UDC 621.387.143.014.31

New experimental data on the effective "thermal" density 
of a current in the nonstationary arc spot on the copper cathode of 
an electric-arc heater of a gas and its dependence on the magnetic 
field have been obtained by thermophysical methods. Results of the 
investigation can be used for thermal calculations of electrodes for 
the purpose of increasing their service life.

aGleb Wataghin Institute of Physics, Campinas State 
University, Campinas, Brazil; email: aruy@ifi.unicamp.br; bAcademic 
Scientific Complex "A. V. Luikov Heat and Mass Transfer Institute," 
National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus; email: 
leonid@ptlab2.itmo.by. Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii 
Zhurnal, Vol. 74, No. 3, pp. 198-206, May-June, 2001. 
Original article submitted September 25, 2000.

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