Further correlation of experimental data for electric arcs in transverse magnetic fields

Data obtained for short arcs moving in a transverse magnetic field in argon and helium, together with some results for an arc held stationary in an argon flow, have been correlated by the use of similarity parameters presented in a recent paper. The results obtained in this form are compared with previous results for arcs moving in air, and a very close similarity between the magnetic characteristic for all three gases is found. The range of conditions over which arc velocity may be predicted is thereby considerably extended. It is also shown that, although the arc-column electric field can be successfully correlated with other main variables for a single gas, it is not yet possible to extend this correlation from one gas to another.