Static gap erosion of Ag-CdO electrodes

The arc erosion behavior of Ag-CdO electrodes has been investigated by static gap discharge experiments. By recording the breakdown voltage of each discharge, and thus the interelectrode gap distance, the erosion depth was continuously monitored. Based on the experimental data and a simple model, the mechanisms of erosion at different levels of arc energy were identified. When struck by low-energy arcs, the electrode erosion was found to be mainly due to vaporization, but when struck by high-energy arcs the electrode erosion was by melting and ablation. The efficiency of erosion was estimated to be 0.003 to 0.009, which suggests that most of the arc energy is dissipated in the interelectrode atmosphere and by conduction into the electrodes, and that only a small fraction of the arc energy actually causes electrode erosion.< >