Home – Home – Jornals – Thermophysics and Aeromechanics 2002 number 4

The results of experimental investigations of temperature fields and Joule heating in hollow cathodes in vacuum plasmatorches have been considered. The characteristics of thermal fields on the hollow cathode inner surface have been obtained with the use of the solution of a two-dimensional inverse thermal task. It has been shown that the Joule heating of cathodes may be ignored at cathode thickness of δ > 2^.10^-3 m and discharge currents of (I/d1) < 10⁴ À/m. The role of re-emission processes and plasma pressure in the cathode cavity at parameter gradient formation over the cathode length has been elucidated.