Abstract

Measurements with vacuum interrupters equipped with bipolar axial magnetic field (AMF) contacts have shown that the post-arc current magnitude and its duration fall with shortened arcing time, and decreasing gap distance, respectively. Simulations of post-arc currents point out that this dependency may result either from different arc diameters or different ion densities around current zero. To clarify this, high-speed movies of vacuum arcs up to 60 kA root mean square were taken, using contacts with a bipolar and quadrupolar axial magnetic field structure. The gap distance was varied by delayed contact opening. Moreover, switching experiments with sealed experimental interrupters under 36 kV conditions with a bipolar AMF arrangement in comparison with a quadrupolar arrangement showed that the bipolar contacts yielded higher interruption capability, in correlation with lower post-arc currents. In order to study the reasons for these phenomena, optical investigations of the arc appearance were carried out under variation of the relevant parameters.

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