Abstract:
An arc heater has two radially spaced axially coincident electrodes providing a radially extending arc path. One of the electrodes has an arcing surface tapering in diameter, or frustoconical in shape, whereby the arc path increases in length from the upstream ends of the electrodes to the downstream ends thereof. An arc initiated at the minimum gap, which is at the upstream end, is blasted toward the downstream direction due in part to an azimuthal magnetic field produced by a portion of the current path in the inner electrode which is substantially at a 90* angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the inner electrode, but the arc is moved downstream primarily by a ''''Jacob''s ladder'''' effect in which current paths in the electrodes set up magnetic fields which are vectorily added to the magnetic field set up by the arc current in the arc itself, on the upper side only, with a resulting force on the arc which moves it down the electrodes, and the arc path is rotated around the inner electrode by an externally applied direct current axial magnetic field, the combined effects producing a spiral pattern of movement for the arc.
Abstract:
In the processes, an electric arc is produced in a confined area between two annular electrodes and caused by magnetic field generated forces exerted thereon to describe a generally axially extending annular path as it moves substantially continuously around and between the electrodes. Process gas is admitted into the confined area through a substantially circumferential path radially external to the electrodes from which the process gas passes in a generally radial direction through the gap between electrodes and through the annular path described by arc movement, is pyrolized, and moves downstream toward an exhaust nozzle separated from the arc zone by elongated fluid-cooled heat shields and so distant from the arc zone that, according to one process, process gas pyrolized at a predetermined temperature has a mass flow rate such that the gas is cooled to a temperature at which the desired recombination product is present in substantial proportion when it reaches the nozzle. In other processes, quenching gas different from the process gas is added to the pyrolized process gas at one or more axial positions along the path of movement of the pyrolized process gas. In other methods, additional process gas is added to the pyrolized process gas at one or more axially spaced positions along the length of the confined area.
Abstract:
A process for heating gas or fluid which comprises passing the gas or fluid through a gap between electrodes having an arc therebetween at a very high velocity while a system voltage is continuously maintained sufficient to cause breakdown at the gap. The high-velocity gas elongates the arc until the arc voltage required for electrical conduction exceeds the breakdown voltage of the gap whereupon sparkover occurs in the gap, the arc being thereafter elongated again by the gas passing through the gap until the voltage required to sustain arcing exceeds the breakdown voltage of the gap, the cycle of gap breakdown and elongation being repeated over and over again. The greatly extended arc provides for more efficient heating of the gas, better mixing and a more uniform temperature to which the gas is heated.