ABSTRACT
The non-transferred arc heater has all along been a main ground-test facility for thermostructural materials and thermal protective systems of re-entry vehicles because the power density of high power plasma torches surpasses ordinary flames by at least one order of magnitude. In the BIA researchers have developed a multi-megawatt long segmented arc heater with nozzle throat diameters 10, 25 and 36mm. This heater has been used in material ablation tests of re-entry vehicle thermal protective system and exploratory research of plasma ladle heating. The long segmented arc heater has two features. First, there are several long segments between the cylindrical electrodes. These segments are electrically insulated from each other to prevent arc shunting. Secondly, swirling gas is introduced into an arc chamber from isolator gaps to reduce the number of charge carriers diffused into these gaps and to keep the hot arc on the center line.
