Analysis of Electric Arcs in AC Circuits

A simple analytical model is developed. to represent the transient behavior of high pressure electric arcs from the mass and energy conservation equations and Ohm´s law. The analytical model is cast´ in a form that allows the arc terminal characteristics to be incorporated into modern electric circuit analysis computer code. The model predictions are found to be in fair agreement with experimental results. Modifications to the model to aliow it to first minimize errors caused by the approximations and second to represent a wide range of electric arcs are also discussed.