Plasma Properties of Electric Arc Discharge Burning Between Cu-W Composites Electrodes

Plasma of electric arc discharge burning between different types of composite Cu-W electrodes was investigated. Electrodes manufactured of Cu-W composite materials (30/70% by mass) by shock sintering technology at temperatures of 750, 850, 950, and 1050°C were used. Optical emission spectroscopy techniques were applied to determine the main plasma parameters. Specifically, the side-on spectra of plasma emission were registered using a space-resolved spectrograph with a CMOS camera as a sensor device. The plasma thermodynamics properties were calculated based on the equilibrium plasma composition, which was determined using experimentally obtained radial distributions of temperatures and atom concentrations of the metals.