Reignition After Interruption of Intermediate-Frequency Vacuum Arc in Aircraft Power System

Abstract

Intermediate frequency (IF) electric power supply system has been widely applied in airplanes. Reignition after interruption of 360-850 Hz vacuum arc in axial magnetic field (AMF) is studied in this paper. According to the experimental results, the current interruption ability decreases from 22.4 kA at 360 Hz to 14.0 kA at 850 Hz. With the increase of frequency, the rate of change of current, di/dt, at current zero (CZ) reaches the breaking threshold at a smaller current value. Based on the least squares solution of the Mayr model, the time of decay of arc energy is prolonged when interruption fails, which is disadvantageous to the breaking process. On the other hand, the eddy effect is enhanced by higher frequency, which increases the residual magnetic induction intensity and the hysteresis phase of AMF after CZ. As a result, the diffusion of plasma is blocked. In the experiments, we find that the position of arc reignition always appears at the margin of contacts. It is shown by calculation that the electric field at the marginal area is twice as strong as that inside the contact. The current density is high, where the electric field is strong, leading to the higher probability of field emission. Arc images are analyzed by frame differential method. The sputtering velocity of macroscopic particles is estimated to be 10-20 m/s. The dissipation time of the macroscopic particles is longer than the arc time of IF vacuum arc, and the presence of macroscopic particles leads to the arc reignition. The findings of this paper would be beneficial to the parameter design of IF vacuum circuit breakers, such as the magnetic flux density of AMF, the chamfering of contact margin, and contact materials.