Arc quenching performance due to ablation; Comparison between four common polymers

The arc quenching and current interruption performance of four common polymers are experimentally studied. Each material is tested according to an ”up-and-down” statistical procedure in order to determine the current that gives 50 % probability for interruption. The experimental ablation rig has two static electrodes, with ablation polymer plates near the electrodes. The current source is a capacitor unit, and a sinusoidal current is created with a damped RCL circuit where the arc is ignited with a high voltage pulse. The setup together with the statistical procedure give high sensitivity for comparing different materials and provide good statistical confidence. Polypropene has the best arc quenching performance among the tested materials and interrupts about 2.7 times higher current than polytetrafluoroethylene, which is use as a reference material.