Electric field optimization design of a vacuum interrupter based on the Tabu search algorithm

During interruption in the vacuum interrupter, the re-ignition between the contact and the shield is influenced by the shape of the contact and size of the shield. The design of the contact and the shield is an intricate optimization problem. In this paper, the Tabu search algorithm is applied to optimize the contacts of a 35 kV vacuum interrupter. The optimization design is based on electric field computation using the finite element method. By solving the inverse problem, the optimization of the contacts is achieved, and a reasonable distribution of the electric field is obtained. Based on the combinatorial optimization Tabu search algorithm, an improved universal algorithm for continuous variables global optimization is proposed.