Modeling and simulations of high-pressure cathodic arcs with adaptive carthesian mesh

Summary form only given. Accurate simulations of high-pressure moving arcs are required for improving arc heater facilities.1 We have developed a new tool for arc simulations with Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) and Volume-of-Fluid (VoF) model for electrode phenomena. It has been validated against available experimental and simulation data for several types of arcs (at gas pressures from 1 to up to 100 atm) with external DC and AC magnetic fields under LTE conditions. Good agreement has been found with available data for gas temperature, voltage drop, plasma jet velocities, Maecker jet pinch pressures, etc.2 This paper will present some of the results and discuss our development plans.