| Summary: | Stability of stationary spots on cathodes of arcs in vacuum and ambient gas has been investigated by means of simulation of development in time of perturbations imposed over steady-state solutions. Two cases of loading conditions have been considered, namely, spots operating at fixed current (the case typical of small-scale experiments) and spots operating at fixed voltage (the case typical of high-power circuit breakers). Results are reported on spots on large copper cathodes of vacuum arcs and on spots on tungsten cathodes of high-pressure argon arcs. It is shown, in particular, that if the ballast resistance in a small-scale laboratory experiment with a high-current arc is insufficient, potential consequence may be a thermal explosion of a spot, if the arc burns in vacuum, and massive melting of the cathode surface, if the arc burns in ambient gas. This conclusion conforms to trends observed in the experiment.
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