Propulsion of a plasma ring in a rotary arc device at atmospheric pressure

A new form of electromagnetic plasma propulsion has been observed in experiments with high current electric arcs interacting with a magnetic field and a solid wall of particular configuration. It is shown that the post arc plasma acceleration is likely to be due to the excessive pressure at the wall that during earlier stages of arcing counteracts the Ampere force. An attempt is made to explain formation and motion of the plasma cloud taking into account wall ablation on the basis of a self-similar Sedov’s model.