Simulation of the Effect of a Metal Vapor Arc on Electrode Erosion in Liquid Metal Current Limiting Device

The effect of arc plasma on electrode erosion in a liquid metal current limiter (LMCL) is studied. Based on a simplified two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic model, the elongated GaInSn metal vapor arc and its contraction process in a liquid metal current limiter are simulated. The distributions of temperature, pressure and velocity of the arc plasma are cal- culated. The simulation results indicate that the electrode erosion is mainly caused by two high temperature gas jet flows arising from the pressure gradient, which is a result of the non-uniform arc temperature distribution. The gas flows, which act as jets onto the electrode surface, lead to the evaporation of the electrode material form the surface. A redesign structure of the electrode is proposed and implemented according to the analysis, which greatly increased the service life of the electrode.