A method of measuring the accumulated arc energy using a digital counter

This paper describes a simple method of measuring the discharge energy of an arc and/or the accumulated energy of a series of arcs. This method is based on the conversion of the arc energy into a pulse train, repetition rate of which is proportional to the amplitude of the arc power thereby eliminating the need for the analog circuit to integrate the arc power within arc duration as well as for the analog-digital converter to indicate arc energy in digit to result in a simple circuit. A prototype equipment is constructed by using a digital counter and three modules — operational-amplifier, multiplier, and voltage-frequency converter. The equipment can measure the energy of widely fluctuating arcs without changing the measuring ranges.