Electrode temperature measurements of multi-phase AC arc by high-speed video camera

The multi-phase AC arc plasma has been applied in the glass melting technology as a promising heat source. The electrode erosion of the multi-phase arc is one of the most important issues to be solved. In the present work, the theory of the two-colour pyrometry by using the high-speed video camera with band-pass filters was applied to the electrode temperature measurements. First, the spectroscopic measurements of the electrode region in the multi-phase arc were conducted to select the appropriate wavelengths of band-pass filters. Then, the electrode temperatures of 2-phase, 6-phase, and 12-phase arcs were measured. The electrode tip temperature and the molten area were evaluated from the obtained 2-dimensional temperature distributions. Results indicated that the increase of the number of the phases leads to the lower tip temperature and the larger molten area. Observation of the multiple arcs further revealed the particular characteristics of the multi-phase arc, such as the periodical arc motion has important role on the electrode molten state.