Simulation researches on temperature rise of a vacuum interrupter for high current applications

Thermal simulations of a large current vacuum circuit breaker (VCB) were performed to study the influence of heat transfer coefficients, contact way and radius of contact face between movable contact and static contact on the temperature rise. Simulation results of natural convection heat transfer characteristic of rectangular fins showed that optimal structural parameters of rectangular fins can be obtained. The temperature rise of VCB decreased as the increasing of radius of contact face of movable contact and static contact but it was in dependent of contact way. The temperature rise was saturated when the radius of contact face increased to a certain specific value. The temperature rise of VCB, especially the temperature rise of contact face of movable contact and static contact decreased greatly as contact style was ring shaped.