Study on Expansion Process of EDM Arc Plasma

Abstract

In order to understand the phenomena of electrical discharge machining (EDM), the characteristics of transition arc plasma in EDM were investigated. The arc plasma was directly observed with a high speed video camera. In addition, to learn more about arc plasma expansion, plasma temperature was measured by spectroscopy. The arc plasma temperature was obtained by measuring the radiant fluxes of two different wavelengths from the arc plasma and applying the line pair method. Furthermore, a new expansion model for EDM arc plasma was proposed based on the observations, and validated by comparing experimental and computed results of the discharge crater.