Arc Movements in a Hollow Cathode of a High-Power Plasma Torch

Hollow-cathode arcs are used in industrial thermal-plasma applications like waste treatments or gas heater. The description of such kind of plasma torch is not easy to model due to three facts: vortex gas injection, the transient change of cathode root-attachment position, and the presence of an external magnetic coil to diminish the cathode erosion. This paper proposes a numerical 3-D modeling for representing the arc movement and studying the convection effects within the cathode.