Arc blow magnetization in shipyard welding

Tom references his Friday discussion of stud welding as the original setup for the arc-blow discussion — current turning 90° through a long thin workpiece concentrates the magnetic field on the inside of the bend and pushes the arc outward.

There's another problem of electromagnetic forces in arcs, and I alluded to it Friday when I talked about stud welding: arc blow. There's almost nothing in the literature, even the welding handbook, about arc blow, other than that it exists. What happens if I've got my electrode in my arc, and I've got a piece of material that's long and thin, and I'm going to bring it to ground over here? The current is going to go through, turn, and go down the material and out. When the current turns 90 degrees, you're going to have a higher density of magnetic field on the inside than on the outside.