Experimental characterization of arc instabilities and their effect on current chopping in low-surge vacuum interrupters

Author

Smeets, René P P ; Kaneko, Eiji ; Ohshima, Iwao

Author_Institution

Toshiba Corp., Tokyo, Japan

Volume

20

Issue

4

fYear

1992

fDate

8/1/1992 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

439

Lastpage

446

Abstract

In low-current vacuum arcs, short (<500-ns) peaks in arc voltage (instabilities), with a height of up to ten times the normal arc voltage, are abundantly present. The instabilities are thought to be caused by ion starvation near the anode. A number of parameters of these instabilities, occurring in vacuum interrupters with AgWC (low-surge) and CuCr (conventional) contact material, have been analyzed statistically in a practical AC circuit. A striking difference in median rate of rise and height is found. It is found plausible that these parameters reflect important switching characteristics such as recovery (peak rate of rise) and current chopping level (peak height). Also, the dependence of the parameters on momentary arc current and contact distance is studied and explained qualitatively

Keywords

arcs (electric); circuit-breaking arcs; plasma instability; plasma transport processes; 500 ns; AC circuit; AgWC; CuCr; arc current; arc instabilities; arc voltage; contact distance; current chopping; instabilities; ion starvation; low-current arcs; low-surge vacuum interrupters; switching characteristics; Anodes; Inductance; Interrupters; Laboratories; Magnetic circuits; Magnetic materials; Nuclear and plasma sciences; Surges; Vacuum arcs; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/27.256771

Filename

256771