Holographic Interferometry of Arc Discharges Displaced by Magnetic Fields

The first part of the paper gives a survey of some theoretical aspects of the behavior of a free burning arc in transverse cross-flow and magnetic field. After a short discussion of the variety of forces acting on the arc, the low current case is investigated, in which the external magnetic field is assumed to change aperiodically with time. In the second part, an arc experiment is described which allows the examination of the theoretical aspects of the arc motion. As a diagnostic method, a holographic technique is applied which visualizes the position of the arc as function of time. The calculated and measured displacements of the arc agree within the error limits.