Arc restrike in the rail accelerator

One of the causes of the degradation in rail accelerator performance is the formation of a secondary arc. Experimental evidence of arc restrike and the subsequent growth of this secondary arc is presented. A simple analytical treatment of arc restrike is developed in terms of breakdown of residual vapor atoms. It is found that after the passage of the primary arc, the bore volume contains a large number of residual neutral vapor atoms. If the density of these atoms is in excess of the critical density, then for a certain length of time the condition exists in the bore for the formation of a secondary arc. Evaporation of atoms from the bore surfaces cannot provide a sufficient number of atoms for an arc restrike. A likely source of the high residual atom density is the leakage of a portion of the ablated material that is added to the trailing edge of the primary arc.