STEP MODEL OF EROSION OF ELECTRODES. I. APPLICATION TO ARC 
SPOTS ON THE CATHODES OF ELECTRIC-ARC HEATERS

A. Marotta,a L. I. Sharakhovskii,b, and A. M. Esipchukb

UDC 621.387.143.014.31

A simple model of erosion of cold electrodes which considers 
the step motion of arc spots is proposed. It is assumed that the macroscopic 
destruction of an electrode begins with fusion of the electrode in 
the spot. The basic thermal characteristics of the arc spot, the thermophysical 
properties of the electrode material, and the regime of the electric 
arc are taken into account. The notion of the effective erosion enthalpy 
which summarizes all the elementary processes leading to the erosion 
of the electrode is used. The model has successfully been applied 
to arc spots on the cathodes of electric-arc heaters. A comparison 
with the earlier model of continuous motion of the spot has been made.

aGleb Wataghin Institute of Physics at Campinas State University, 
Campinas, Brazil (Instituto de Fisica "Gleb Wataghin," Universidade 
Estadual de Campinas, Campinas, Sã Paulo, Brasil); email: aruy@ifi.unicamp.br. 
bA. V. Luikov Heat and Mass Transfer Institute, National Academy 
of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus; email: leonids@land.ru; 
Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 76, No. 2, pp. 
116-122, March-April, 2003. Original article submitted October 14, 2002