ABSTRACT The article presents a mathematical model of the propagation of thermoelectric current occurring in a heated material. The model is based on solving an elliptic‐type equation. This equation is a consequence of the system of equations of electrodynamics, which is written for the case of axial symmetry. Various formulas for determining the resistivity and thermal strength in vapors of a substance, which are coefficients of the equations of thermoelectric current, are considered. As a result of calculations, electric current distributions in a tungsten sample and an evaporated substance are obtained when the surface is heated by an electron beam. It is shown that the introduction of a magnetic field into the model leads to suppression of thermoelectric current outside the melt zone. The model parameters are taken from experiments at the Beam of Electrons for materials Test Applications (BETA) stand.
Г. Г. Лазарева (Sun,) studied this question.