A dynamic study of the warm-up phase of a high-pressure mercury lamp

A time-dependent two-dimensional computational fluid model has been adopted to investigate the dynamic behavior of the high-pressure mercury lamp during the last phase of the warm-up period. The model solves the combined momentum, continuity, energy, and electric field equations for the plasma and the energy equation for the wall. Two models have been compared. The first takes convection into account and is called "convection model." The second, which neglects this term, is termed "convectionless model." Good agreement between the predictions and experimental data from literature has been obtained. It is found that the convection affects the lamp performance by increasing the mercury losses behind the electrodes and the mercury-evaporation time. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.