Modeling Arc in Transverse Magnetic Field by Using Minimum Principle

A method to calculate the properties of a high-current arc exposed to a transverse magnetic field is proposed. Using only the arc current and the magnetic field, the method predicts the arc size, electric field, temperature, and velocity of the arc. Comparison is presented for the calculated arc velocity V as a function of the magnetic field B with the available experimental data. The computed velocity of a 100-A arc at one atmosphere showed that: 1) the functional dependence of V(B) ~ B
^0.63
is close to that experimentally observed and 2) the difference between the computed velocity and the experimental one does not exceed the factor of 2 in a wide diapason of magnetic fields. The prediction of the velocity of an arc at superhigh pressure (100 atm) is made.