Numerical Simulation of Unsteady Behavior of Rotary Arc Plasma under Magnetic Field

We are currently developing a time-dependent, three-dimensional computational magneto-plasma-dynamics (MPD) code for simulating a rotary gas circuit breaker utilizing an external applied magnetic field. In order to test the computational code under development, we have conducted the numerical simulation of arc plasma in a cylindricalshaped chamber filled with SF6 gas in the presence of externally applied magnetic field. The present paper describes details of the MPD model in the computational code, and also shows numerical simulation results.