Investigation of temperature fields on the surface of tungsten cathode of a high-current arc using a high-speed matrix

A method is suggested of time-space analysis of temperature fields on the surface of tungsten cathode of a high-current electric arc using a VS-FAST high-speed video camera (manufactured by VideoScan, Moscow). The importance of contribution made by plasma radiation to the cathode surface emissivity being measured is considered, and the methods of taking this contribution into account are identified. Experiments reveal the possibility of using this high-speed video camera as a pyrometer providing for time resolution up to 2 μs and space resolution of about 30 μm.