A fine metallic wire electrode is heated from below (by an electric discharge) causing melting and roll-up into a ball by surface tension. After the heating is terminated, a solidification front progresses through the melt until a solid ball is formed and cooled to ambient conditions. In this paper we numerically simulate the heating, melt motion and roll up and subsequent cooling and solidification. This is a three-phase problem (solid, liquid, and the ambient medium—plasma/gas) with two simultaneously moving phase interfaces, the outer one tracked by orthogonal grid generation conformal with the evolving boundary surface at each time interval. A novel observation in this study is that the wire end first drops until the melt radius equals the wire radius and then it begins to roll up into a ball consuming the wire. In other words, the inter-electrode gap first reduces and subsequently increases during an electronic flame off (EFO) discharge heating/phase-change process.
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Melting of a Wire Anode Followed by Solidification: A Three-Phase Moving Interface Problem
S. S. Sripada,
S. S. Sripada
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6315
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Ira M. Cohen,
Ira M. Cohen
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6315
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P. S. Ayyaswamy
P. S. Ayyaswamy
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6315
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S. S. Sripada
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6315
Ira M. Cohen
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6315
P. S. Ayyaswamy
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6315
Contributed by the Heat Transfer Division for publication in the JOURNAL OF HEAT TRANSFER. Manuscript received by the Heat Transfer Division May 22, 2002; revision received February 25, 2003. Associate Editor: V. P. Carey.
J. Heat Transfer. Aug 2003, 125(4): 661-668 (8 pages)
Published Online: July 17, 2003
Article history
Received:
May 22, 2002
Revised:
February 25, 2003
Online:
July 17, 2003
Citation
Sripada , S. S., Cohen , I. M., and Ayyaswamy, P. S. (July 17, 2003). "Melting of a Wire Anode Followed by Solidification: A Three-Phase Moving Interface Problem ." ASME. J. Heat Transfer. August 2003; 125(4): 661–668. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.1576811
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