STEP MODEL OF EROSION OF ELECTRODES. III. ADAPTATION TO ARBITRARY 
REGIMES OF ELECTROEROSION TREATMENT

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

UDC 621.387.143.014.31

The step model of erosion of the cold electrodes of electric-arc 
heaters proposed in Inzh.-Fiz. Zh., 76, No. 2, 36-42 
(2003) and Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci., 891, 36-42 (1999) 
has been modified for calculating the rate of electroerosion treatment 
of materials. The point heat source [J. Appl. Phys., 66, 
No. 9, 4095-4103 (1989)] for determining the effective enthalpy 
of erosion has been reduced to a plane surface heat source equivalent 
in erosion and corresponding to the step model. The approximation 
analytical relations in dimensionless numbers have been obtained. 
The calculation results are in satisfactory agreement with the experimental 
data of different authors.

aA. V. Luikov Heat and Mass Transfer Institute, National 
Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus; email: leonids@land.ru; 
bGleb 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. 
Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 76, No. 2, pp. 
127-133, March-April, 2003. Original article submitted October 14, 2002.