Thyristor Rectifier for DC Arc Furnace with Enhanced Arc Stability

In this paper, the fundamental features of the arc stability DC arc furnace have been investigated, from the converter point of view. To compare of measurement arc data from DC arc furnace and the advanced arc simulations of magneto-hydrodynamics (MHD) and the well known Cassie-Mayr arc model have been extensively used. The MHD based arc simulation has been validated in the subcomponent level, for the free burning arc set up in the laboratory. The arc simulation predicted the arc voltage for different currents with the accuracy which satisfies engineering requirements. It has been shown that the arc current steepness at current zero determines the arc stability, and the associated peak arc resistance can be used as its quantitative measure. Based on the presented insight into the DC arc stability, a converter topology solution which realizes an optimal arc stability has been proposed. The main results presented in this paper provide a design guideline for the future DC arc furnace converter topology developments.