Simplification of the arc splitting process in numerical gas flow simulations

The behavior of arcs in low voltage switching devices is affected by several interactions. To take the different physical processes into account as detailed as possible , the computational effort is very time intensive, especially if several splitter plates in complex geometries should be analyzed. To utilize arc simulations as a design tool for switching device development, a reduction of the simulation time is desirable. Therefore a method to simplify the pile of splitter plates is studied. The gas dynamic equations are averaged by an approach of a porous material, and for the simplification of the electromagnetic equations of the splitter plates anisotropic material behavior is assumed. So the material parameters of the porous material in pile direction and normal to pile direction are described by parallel and series connections of the temperature and pressure dependent material parameters. In place of the pile of splitter plates a single continuous domain is used. In this paper verifications of submodels for the gas-dynamic and the electric flow in porous media are presented. Furthermore a simulation of a splitting process with several discrete splitter plates is compared with a splitting process in a simplified continuous porous domain.