Abstract
The emission of contact material into vacuum after switching operation of a vacuum interrupter is crucial for the metallisation of the ceramic surfaces. This work focuses on the simulation of various regimes of metal vapour pressure using an extended version of an existing DSMC code that now allows the visualisation of the interaction types and locations during the vapour expansion. The model was applied to a typical vacuum interrupter geometry at different current levels between 3 A and 100 kA. The simulations show that in the low current case the likelihood for a particle hitting a ceramic surface can be more than a factor of 5 higher than in the high current case. An explanation of this observation will be given by analysing the interaction history of the respective particles.
Highlights
IntroductionArcs in vacuum emit metal vapour; sometimes this is a desired effect (e.g. in vacuum arc deposition applications), in other cases it can result in an undesired performance degradation of the arcing device (e.g. in vacuum interrupters (VIs)) [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8])
Arcs in vacuum emit metal vapour; sometimes this is a desired effect, in other cases it can result in an undesired performance degradation of the arcing device (e.g. in vacuum interrupters (VIs)) [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8])
This work focuses on the simulation of various regimes of metal vapour pressure using an extended version of an existing DSMC code that allows the visualisation of the interaction types and locations during the vapour expansion
Summary
Arcs in vacuum emit metal vapour; sometimes this is a desired effect (e.g. in vacuum arc deposition applications), in other cases it can result in an undesired performance degradation of the arcing device (e.g. in vacuum interrupters (VIs)) [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]). In terms of computational simulations of this process is the high-pressure gradient a numerical challenge, and the absolute pressure regimes that exist in parallel such as in vacuum interrupters during the switching operation. The Direct Simulated Monte Carlo (DSMC) method [9], can be applied for all pressure regimes. In this respect, one important parameter in fluid dynamics is the Knudsen number K, defined as the ratio of the mean free path of the gas particles and the typical dimension of the geometry. This work focuses on the simulation of various regimes of metal vapour pressure using an extended version of an existing DSMC code [10] that allows the visualization of the interaction types and locations during the vapour expansion
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