Simulation on metal droplet sputtering and molten pool on copper contact under electric arc

摘要

The mechanism of molten pool and metal droplet sputtering are significant to the material erosion caused by breaking or making arcs especially for high-power switching devices. In this paper, a 2D axially symmetric simplified numerical model based on Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible viscous fluid and potential equation for electric field has been built to describe the formation of the molten metal jet drop and molten pool under a electric arc root on copper contact, the melting process is considered, the formation of an elemental molten pool and molten metal droplet under the electric arc on a copper contact has been numerically simulated by different metallic arc plasma pressure and heat flux density. The simulated molten metal droplet and molten pool behavior is presented by the temperature distribution sequences. Based on the simulation results, we distinguish two different models of the molten jet process: "edge ejection" and "center ejection", a new explanation is proposed. It shows that the arc plasma pressure distribution plays an important role in the metal jet forced away from molten pool, the angle of the molten jet drop can be decreased along with the arc pressure amplitude increasing.