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In this paper, a numerical simulation on the interaction between the double cathode spot craters in the vacuum arc is carried out. By establishing a double-cathode spot ablation model, the crater development process when two spots coexist is simulated, and the formation mechanism of cathode spot groups is analyzed. The simulation results show that the two cathode spots appearing on the flat electrode would squeeze each other to form a liquid metal ridge, which changed the ablation morphology of the cathode spots. When the double-spot arc craters appear simultaneously, the metal ridge will be squeezed into a straight line, otherwise, when the spots appear one after another, the liquid metal ridge will shift toward the side of the spot that appears first. The relative experimental results are adopted to compare with the simulation results. By comparison, it is found that the morphology of the multi-spot crater in the experiment is in agreement with the simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the model including cathode spot process and deuterium desorption process on zirconium deuterium cathode is developed. Five kinds of particle fluxes on cathode surface and three mechanisms affecting deuterium diffusion in cathode are considered. The model not only describes the deformation of cathode metal, but also describes the variation of deuterium concentration with time. On pure zirconium cathode, the mean charge state is larger but on zirconium deuterium cathode, the total ion number density is larger since there are additional deuterium ions, and simulation results show the discharge currents are very close on the two cathodes, the energy flux density on ZrD0.66 cathode is larger so cathode spot crater develops faster on ZrD0.66 cathode. Ablation rates caused by different mechanisms are calculated and the results show in cathode spot development process, mass loss caused by evaporation is ignored, most of the liquid metal will resolidify on cathode surface, and droplets are the main reason for cathode ablation. The ablation rates due to the ejection of droplets are close to experimental results. The ratios of deuterium ion from different mechanisms in this process are also calculated and it is 93.5% in simulation. Simulation results are in agreement with the other researchers’ works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]