This paper presents an experimental approach to identify the sources of instabilities in arc plasma devices. The phenomena of demixing in arcs have been utilized to explore the characteristics of different instabilities. Problems in explaining the observed behavior with our current understanding of the phenomena are discussed. Hydrogen is used as a secondary gas with argon as the primary plasma gas for this study. Results indicate that the observed behavior such as steady, takeover, and restrike modes of instabilities in arcs may essentially originate from the thin boundary layer over the anode wall primarily at the location of the anodic arc root. The bulk core flow apparently does not play any significant role in such instabilities. Arc currents rather than flow rates control the behavior of the instabilities in frequency space. Bifurcation of the system behavior and evidence for the existence of quadratic zones in flow space of binary gas mixtures separating steady and unsteady behavior are discussed.

• Received 23 March 2007

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.76.016404