Numerical Simulation of Low-current Vacuum Arc Plasma

Three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic(MHD) model of vacuum arc was built based on two-fluid model of ion and electron and Maxwell equation. In the MHD model mass conservation equation, momentum conservation equations, energy conservation equations of ion and electron, electric potential equations and magnetic equations were considered. With the aid of Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD) software FLUENT and Re-development by visual C++, the important plasma parameters of low current vacuum arc, such as axial current density, ion temperature, electron temperature, mach number, were analyzed. The simulation results shown that the distribution of plasma parameters is consistent with that of the 2D axis-symmetric model.