The behavior of vacuum arcs between spiral contacts with small gaps

The application of small gaps in high-current vacuum interrupters highlights the interdependence of the contact design, the contact gap, and the arc behavior. In this investigation, a framing camera was used to record the appearance and motion of drawn vacuum arcs between spiral-petal contacts with final gaps of 2 to 3 mm. After the rupture of the molten metal bridge, a high-pressure arc column formed and expanded across the width of the spiral arm. With a single arc column for the duration of the half-cycle, an intense anode spot formed if the peak current exceeded ~15 kA. Compared to results previously obtained at larger gaps, the arc motion was greatly reduced, and severe contact damage was observed at lower currents     

Study on arc mode and shape transformation in the arc motion stage between transverse magnetic field contacts

Transverse magnetic field (TMF) contacts drive the vacuum arc moving along the contact surface by producing a magnetic field perpendicular to the arc current flow, which makes the arc energy distribute uniformly and prevents the contact from serious ablation due to local overheating. The characteristics of arc motion between the TMF contacts directly determine the surface temperature distribution and contact erosion. Also, it is closely related to the breaking ability of the contacts. In this paper, the arc motion between spiral‐type contacts was recorded by a high‐speed camera. By analysing the arc voltage and arc images, the characteristics of arc shape transformation in the motion stage under different currents were studied. At the same time, the influence of arc duration and arc characteristics before the motion stage on the arc motion is discussed. It is found that the arc behaviour before the motion stage did influence the shape transformation and range of arc rotation. After entering the motion stage, there was always a rapid transformation process of the arc shape and the arc would return to where it first became constricted after a short movement. After a continuous movement, it might rotate in a small region where the arc stagnated before the motion stage. In addition, the arc behaviour was also related to its duration. When the opening time was varied from 2 to 5 ms, the arc velocity decreased. Meanwhile, it was more likely that multiple transformations of the arc aggregation degree occurred.     

Visualization and characterization of high-current diffuse vacuumarcs on axial magnetic field contacts

We have investigated the behavior of drawn vacuum arcs for several designs of axial magnetic field (AMF) contacts using high-speed digital photography and arc voltage measurements, As the peak current was increased, a gradual transition occurred in the arc appearance from a multiple cathode-spot arc to the high-current diffuse mode, and then to a high-current diffuse columnar mode. Two relatively simple models based on the literature are used to explain the results. The first is an empirical criterion for using the arc voltage behavior to determine the maximum arc current for which an AMF geometry can produce a high-current diffuse mode from the initial bridge column arc. The second model predicts the highest arc current that can be forced into a fully diffuse mode for given values of the AMF and the contact arcing radius. The predictions of these models are compared to our experimental and analytical results     

Investigation of unstable motion characteristics of vacuum arc cathode spots between transverse magnetic field contacts

With the improvement of the current level of power grids, the requirements of the opening level of the vacuum switches are also increasing. Vacuum arc cathode spots provide steam and electrons and, to a certain extent, determine the opening capacity of the vacuum switch. In this paper, a vacuum arc cathode spot research platform based on the de-mountable vacuum chamber is constructed. The characteristics of the vacuum arc cathode spots under the transverse magnetic field (TMF) contacts are assessed by a high-speed charge coupled device. The experimental results show that the cathode spot diffusion process can be divided into three processes through cathode spot distribution, arc voltage and current: initial diffusion stage of cathode spots, unstable motion stage of cathode spots, and extinguishing stage. The motion mode of cathode spots during unstable motion stage can be divided into cathode spots group stagnation (CSGS) to multi-cathode jet (MCJ) switch mode, cathode spots group motion (CSGM) to MCJ switch mode, CSGM mode, and MCJ mode. The effects of peak current and contact diameter on unstable motion mode were analysed.     

The Investigation of Copper-Chromium Contacts in Vacuum Interrpters Subjected to an Axial Magnetic Field

The characteristics of a vacuum arc between CuCr contacts under an axial magnetic field have been investigated. Test samples were made of CuCr contacts, and the arcing voltage was measured. The arcing voltage of the CuCr contacts under an axial magnetic field is lower than that of pure copper contacts by 10-20 V. From the measurement of the post-arc current and interruption test results, it was found that the arc concentrates and a part of the electrode melts at a rather low current, but that the electrode melting does not affect the interrupting capability. Also, the insulation characteristics were measured. With respect to voltage conditioning, high-current conditioning improved the breakdown voltage by 50 percent for a 20-mm gap and by 100 percent for a 3-mm gap. These test results show that CuCr contacts, used with axial magnetic fields, are promising for use in high-voltage and high-power vacuum interrupters.     

Influence of bias magnetic field on the vacuum arc in double‐break vacuum circuit breakers

When double‐break vacuum circuit breakers (VCBs) interrupt the fault current, the series arc will generate their individual magnetic fields in different breaks. The magnetic field in one break will influence the arc in another break if the magnetic field is strong enough or the two breaks are very close. In this case, an interactive magnetic field effect happens. This field is also called the bias magnetic field (BMF). BMF can cause anode erosion and affect the performance at current zero. The distribution of BMF and the optimal configuration of the double‐break VCBs were obtained by the electromagnetic field simulation using the Ansoft Maxwell software. Based on the simulated magnetic field data, in the experiments, the interaction between the series vacuum arcs in double‐break VCBs was equivalent to the interaction between a single vacuum arc and the magnetic field generated by a Helmholtz coil. A high‐speed CMOS camera was used to record the trajectory of the vacuum arc plasma under different BMFs with different types of contacts. The results show the BMF can increase the arc voltage, and the arc becomes unstable. When the BMF becomes stronger, the arc voltage increases, and the arc becomes more unstable. In addition, for different types of contacts, the development process of the arc and the influence level are different under the same BMF. For a Wan‐type transverse magnetic field (TMF) contact or strong BMF, metal sputtering is evident and anode erosion becomes serious. For a cup‐type axial magnetic field (AMF) contact, the influence of BMF on the series arc plasma in double‐break VCBs is less than that of the Wan‐type TMF contact. The results of this work may be helpful for the design of compact double‐break VCBs.     

Investigation on arc characteristics in cup-shaped contacts with different structure for transverse magnetic field vacuum circuit breaker

The cup-shaped transverse magnetic field (TMF) contacts contain radial components and tangential components in the TMF generated when the current is interrupted. The tangential force generated by the radial magnetic field component drives the vacuum arc to rotate, and the tangential magnetic field component generates a radial force that causes the vacuum arc to move radially outward. In this paper, in order to study the influence of the arc force direction on the arc characteristics, the influence of the contact structure parameters such as the inclination of the inner wall on the arc force direction is simulated, and the breaking tests of different levels of current are carried out on the contact with different structure parameters. It is found that the direction of the Lorentz force has a significant effect on the breaking characteristics of the current, and the tangential and radial force components have varying degrees of influence on the motion characteristics of the arc during the start process and the metal droplet splashing.     

Physical and theoretical aspects of a new vacuum arc controltechnology-self arc diffusion by electrode: SADE

Our new vacuum arc control technology SADE doubles the high current interruption capability of our conventional axial magnetic field technology. First, we describe the vacuum arc motion behavior recorded by a high speed charge-coupled device video camera. This arc behavior is closely related to axial magnetic field intensity. In particular, it depends on the profile of the externally generated axial magnetic field. The anode spot is likely to move to the highest magnetic field intensity. Second, we describe analytical results for concentration of vacuum arc at the anode side contact surface. This analysis implies the possibility of an ideal magnetic field profile and intensity for vacuum arc control. Finally, we describe experimental results for vacuum arc control compared with the physical and theoretical results mentioned above, and we show a practical electrode configuration for vacuum interrupters and its application in a high current interruption experiment     

Axial magnetic field contacts with nonuniform distributed axial magnetic fields

It is well known that axial magnetic fields (AMFs) can keep vacuum arc in diffuse mode at high current. According to our recent research and other published papers, it has been found that vacuum arc can be maintained in high-current diffuse mode at much higher current if nonuniform AMF is applied, that the axial magnetic field is higher at contact periphery than at center. The influence of spatial distribution of AMF on vacuum arc is mainly studied in this paper. Furthermore, two types of AMF contacts with new structures to generate nonuniform AMF are presented.     

Space-charge-limited current of vacuum arc thruster

To optimize thrust performance, the expression of space-charge-limited current for vacuum arc thruster is derived from Poisson's equation. The commonly used ring-type and coaxial-type vacuum arc thrusters are simplified to the equivalent current sheet in planar geometry and cylindrical capacitor, respectively, for this calculation. Both the spatial distribution and peak magnitude of space-charge-limited current are given explicitly, together with their dependences on gap distance, applied voltage, charge number, and ion mass. For typical experimental parameters of the vacuum arc thruster, it is shown that the maximum current density drops significantly when the gap distance becomes large and grows when the applied voltage increases; moreover, a cathode material of lower atomic weight yields a higher current density. The expressions of total current for these two types of vacuum arc thruster are also presented. This work, to our best knowledge, is the first application of space-charge-limited current to the vacuum arc thruster and practically very interesting for engineering design.     

真空电弧等离子体发射光谱诊断

真空断路器的开断容量限制其在高压大电流开断领域的应用,获取燃弧过程中的等离子体参数对于提高真空断路器的开断容量至关重要。利用发射光谱法对真空电弧内的等离子体参数进行了诊断,研究了在不同电流幅值条件下真空电弧内电子温度、电子密度、谱线强度的轴向分布规律,结合真空电弧高速图片对真空电弧内不同粒子的扩散过程与弧柱直径之间的关系进行了分析。得到的电子温度在8000～10 000 K量级,电子密度在1019～1020 m?3量级,电子温度与电子密度从阴极向阳极逐渐下降,同时铜原子谱线强度主要集中在两极而一价铜离子谱线强度由阴极向阳极逐渐升高。铜原子谱线强度的径向分布呈现类平顶波分布、一价铜离子谱线强度的径向分布呈现类高斯分布的特点,且铜原子的谱线范围略大于弧柱直径,一价铜离子的谱线范围略小于弧柱直径,两种粒子的扩散速度存在差异。     

Anode-Spot Formation and Motion of Vacuum Arcs

This paper reports about experimental investigations on high-current vacuum-arc phenomena, especially anode-spot formation, arc states, and motion. The presented work was stimulated by lack of information about the transition process from the diffuse low-current mode to the high-current mode characterized by anode spot(s). Optoelectronic measurements, streak photographs, high-speed movies, and correlated arc voltage/current records yielded remarkable results on power-frequency vacuum arcs. Three different high-current vacuum arc modes can be observed beyond a certain threshold current. Which mode appears depends mainly on the momentary electrode distance. The modes are characterized by different anode-spot behavior and interelectrode phenomena. The transition between different arc modes is continuous. The arc modes observed on ring electrodes producing a magnetic blast field are the same as those appearing on butt-type electrodes. Anode-spot formation is preceded by congregations of cathode spots and may be initiated by thermal overload of the anode surface opposite to these cathode-spot clusters.     

The short vacuum arc. I. Experimental investigations

High-current vacuum arcs drawn between commercial radial-magnetic field, chromium-copper contacts were studied by high-speed photography. The aim of the investigation was to study phenomena of relevance to high-current interruption, such as arc constriction and arc motion. The arcs were drawn at contact opening speeds typical of commercial devices, are duration being 10 ms or less. The arcs were `short' for much of their lifetime, and strong electrode-discharge coupling could be expected. Such arcs are also of principal interest. Arc behavior was found to be strongly influenced by the gap length d and the arc current I. No diffuse mode was observed at d less the d_min≈4 mm and at instantaneous currents I above I_max±25 kA. The diffuse discharge mode was assumed more readily when d was large. At d below 2 mm, the arcs could not be moved by a magnetic field. Increasing both I and d resulted in an increase of the probability and duration of arc motion and of the arc path length. Arc speed was often irregular, showing that arc motion is also affected by parameters other than the purely electrodynamic ones     

Vacuum arc cathode spot grouping and motion in magnetic fields

Two of the important vacuum arc phenomena observed when the arc runs in a transverse magnetic field are cathode spot grouping and the cathode spot retrograde motion, i.e., in the anti-Amperian direction. This paper summarizes the main experimental observations and proposes a physical model for spot grouping and spot retrograde motion. The proposed spot motion model take in account the previous theoretical model of the cathode thermal regime and the plasma flow near the cathode surface that is based on two conditions: i) the heat loss in the cathode bulk is relatively small to the heat influx, and ii) the plasma flow in the Knudsen layer is impeded. In the present model, the current per group spot is calculated by assuming that the plasma kinetic pressure is comparable to the self-magnetic pressure in the acceleration region of cathode plasma jet. The model includes equations for the current per spot group, spot velocity dependence on the magnetic field and on the arc current in vacuum, as well as in gas filled arc gap. The calculated currents per spot group and spot velocity increase linearly with the magnetic field and arc current, and this dependencies well agree with previous observations. The cathode spot retrograde motion in short electrode gaps and at atmospheric pressure arcs, and the reversal motion in strong magnetic fields (>1 T) observed by Robson and Engel are discussed. The details of the retrograde motion observed in the last decades including the spot velocity dependence on the electrode gap, roughness, temperature, and material could be understood in the frame of the proposed model.     

Vacuum arc investigation of dual-part cathode electrodes

The basic characteristics of a vacuum arc are investigated with a special electrode whose cathode consists of two half-disks. Pure copper is used for one part of the cathode, while copper, chromium, silver, and titanium are used for the other part. The tested arc current value is less than 4000 A, and the flux density of the axial magnetic field applied to a vacuum arc is less than 0.015 T. Experimental results show that the arc voltages of dual-part cathode electrodes are much lower than those of the individual pure metals, and that current sharing between the two parts is roughly determined by the arc current-voltage characteristics of the metals. The arc voltage of the dual-part cathode electrode is extremely low when the current is less than 1000 A     

Study on transition process of vacuum arc under transverse magnetic field

The transverse magnetic field (TMF) drives the vacuum arc to move along the surface of the contacts to prevent the local overheating and melting of the contact surfaces. The arcing process has great influence on the breaking capacity of short‐circuit current. In this paper, the arcing process between three types of TMF contacts was investigated. The transition process of an arc from the ignition stage to the diffusion stage was discussed. The transition moment, transition gap distance, and transition current were obtained. It was found that the axial magnetic field component of TMF contacts affected the arc transition process.     

Contact temperature and erosion in high-current diffuse vacuum arcson axial magnetic field contacts

We have investigated the surface heating effects of drawn vacuum arcs for several industrial designs of axial magnetic field (AMF) contacts, using near infrared (IR) photography of the Cu-Cr arcing surfaces with an image-intensified charge-coupled device (CCD) camera and an IR pyrometer. This enables detailed contact temperature mapping immediately after a half-cycle of arc current. The very homogeneous temperature distribution observed at current zero stands in contrast to the visually nonhomogeneous high-current diffuse arc, which was studied in separately reported experiments using high-speed digital photography and arc voltage measurements. The peak temperature at current zero increased relatively linearly with the peak current I_P, and reached well beyond the melting range. We combine the temperature maps with a heating model to determine the thermal sheath thickness after arcing and its dependence on I_P. The results suggest that near the interruption limit of AMF contacts, the interaction of the stable high-current arc with the anode and cathode is dominated by processes induced by flowing liquid metal, which redistributes the heat input from the axially concentrated arc over most of the contact surface. Furthermore, the flow of liquid metal off the cathode and anode faces contributes to the overall contact erosion     

Experimental investigations of the currents collected by metalshields in high-current vacuum arcs

This paper presents experimental results of currents collected on the three-element condensation shield connected to the cathode potential in high-current vacuum arcs. The arc current had 900 Hz, 150 Hz, or 50 Hz half-cycle sinusoidal shapes and was conducted between the CuCr40 contacts with a diameter of 50 mm (cathode) and 30 mm (anode) spaced 10 mm apart. Most of the measurements were made for the current of 900 Hz with peak values up to 9 kA. Arc voltage, floating shield potential, and distribution of shield currents were measured. It was found that the current collected by the shield and also the arc voltage and floating shield potential are greater for higher frequency currents, and that they are affected by the arc mode. Considerable shield current is observed during a high-amplitude (HA) oscillation sequence of arc voltage while its mean value is increased. For 900-Hz arcs at the 9-kA peak value (I_am), the ratio of shield current (i_s) to an instantaneous value of arc current (i_a) reaches even 40% near I_am value. In the initial half-cycle period (before the initiation of high-voltage oscillation), the ratio of i_s/i_a increases with i_a and current frequency. A close relationship was found between arc voltage and current distribution on a three-element shield     

Arc Motion in Vacuum Circuit Breakers

Arc motion due to self-magnetic fields is investigated theoretically and experimentally. Using an array of four Hall probes 90° apart around a vacuum breaker, we unambiguously determine arc rotation. It is primarily the radio component of magnetic induction that causes this motion. For a particular vacuum breaker design we find that arc rotation is a sensitive function of gap spacing and arc current. (Abstract provided by Editor.)     

Triggered discharges with high arc voltages in a vacuum interrupter

Studies of nonsustained disruptive discharges (NSDDs), isolated cases of which can occur in vacuum interrupters, indicate lateral discharges between the cathode and shield, which can initiate a brief discharge between the contacts. To facilitate the study of such discharges, the sample discharges were triggered by a surface discharge induced by a spark gap, built into the side of the cathode, and observed with a high-speed film camera and image-converter camera. The tests showed a cathode spot after igniting. The emitted electrons first charge the shield negatively and then are directed toward the anode. The discharge burns at a high voltage, with current ranging from 10 to 100 A. After a period of up to 400 μs, the current demand increases abruptly; an arc discharge occurs between the contacts and discharges the capacitances near the switch. The contact gap undergoes a rapid dielectric recovery, and the restored voltage is maintained. These types of discharge were also observed with NSDDs; thus it can be assumed that the triggered discharges studied correspond to the NSDD type