3-D Reconstruction of Vacuum Arc Motion under Transverse Magnetic Fields

Abstract

It is well known that the transverse magnetic field (TMF) can drive the vacuum arc to move continuously on the contact in vacuum interrupters, resulting in a non-axisymmetric characteristic of the vacuum arc. The movement and shape of the vacuum arc will directly influence the interactions between the arc and the electrode, which in turn affects the burning of the arc and successful interruption of the interrupters. In this paper, the motion and morphological changes of a vacuum arc driven by TMF were obtained by adopting a three-dimensional diagnosis method. The vacuum arc was observed by a 3D vacuum arc imaging system from multiple directions, and reconstructed by filtered back-projection (FBP) and Algebra Reconstruction Technique (ART) method based on the record from those directions. Contacts were used with CuCr50 as the contact material. Through the above method, we obtained a 3D model morphological model of a vacuum arc driven by a transverse magnetic field, and analyzed the movement of the vacuum arc under TMF contact by the 3D vacuum arc model.