New Static “AirArc” EMTP Model of Long Arc in Free Air

In this paper, long arcs in free air are investigated. A long arc was induced in the high-power test laboratory at FGH-Mannheim, Germany. From the recorded arc data, the features of the arc were derived and analyzed, including elongation effects associated with these arcs. Based on this analysis of a real arc, a new “AirArc” static arc model, including the length variations, was derived and incorporated into the Alternate Transients Program-Electromagnetic Transients Program software package in which it was simulated. The arc is modeled as a current-dependent voltage source with a characteristic-distorted rectangular voltage that elongates nonlinearly over time. Fault arcs are a significant source of harmonics that distort other voltages and currents in the network. The time-domain and spectral-domain features of the simulated arc are compared with those of the real arc. The assessment of transient processes during arcing faults was carried out using the discrete wavelet transform.