Simulation of electric arc sliding in three-electrode configuration using free software

Abstract

Plasma is the ionization of a gas that can be found in nature: stars, sun, northern lights, interstellar space; also experimentally in laboratories: gas fluorescent lamps, a spark from a short circuit, electric arcs, among others. Plasma has many applications in different areas, such as medicine, sterilization of surgical instruments; in the automotive industry, in the chassis of cars, before being painted they are subjected to a plasma treatment, in order to acquire better paint adhesion to the chassis. These applications of plasma represent the result of a research process many years, where they had to perform numerous tests and develop multiple prototypes before getting the desired result. An application of plasma is the degradation of polluting gases such as carbon dioxide is now one of the main harmful gases in our atmosphere. For the degradation of the dioxide of carbon there are reactors for the generation of plasma and degradation of these gases, and they are constructed and modified by the idea of improving the performance and functionality; All this is achieved with the help of simulation and prototyping in specialized software, usually used in the design of mechanical, electrical, electronic devices, etc. and usually to simulate their behavior in their various applications. The majority of these softwares are of license and the precio for these licenses is very high. The free software is within reach of every user and a distribution variety exists: GNU/Linux, as Fedora, Ubuntu, openSUSE, etc. Every distribution possesses different similar softwares or many improvements in comparison with those of private license, included the scientific software. In this work one tries to transmit the information of the existence of free software and to show a scientific application, from Code Sartune 2.0.4 [1], for the development and simulation of an electrical arch in configuration of three electrodes; the program Code Saturne 2.0.4 works with the method of finite volumes.