Radio-frequency-based determination of arcing duration in HVAC circuit breakers

The arcing duration of a switching operation is a critical input parameter in condition-based switchgear monitoring algorithms. In this paper we propose a new non-intrusive method that directly measures the duration of the electrical arc discharge during current interruption in switchgear. The method relies on coupling of the VHF electric fields generated by the arc. The required hardware used for the measurement is simple and inexpensive, making the proposed methodology potentially commercially viable for application in monitoring systems.