Research on arc root stagnation when small current is interrupted in self-excited circuit breaker

The self-excited DC air circuit breaker (SE-DCCB) has been widely used in urban rail transit due to its excellent stability. It can realize forward and reverse interruption, but has difficulty interrupting small currents due to the phenomenon of arc root sticking at the entrance of the arc chamber in the splitting process, which is known as arc root stagnation. A coupling model of the self-excited magnetic field and magnetohydrodynamics is established for the SE-DCCB with the traditional structure. The magnetic field, temperature and airflow distribution in the arc chamber are investigated with an interrupting current of 150 A. The simulation results show that the direction and magnitude of the magnetic blowout force are the dominant factors in the arc root stagnation. The local high temperature of the arc chamber due to arc root stagnation increases the obstruction effect of the airflow vortex on the arc root movement, which significantly increases the arc duration time of small current interruption. Based on the research, the structure of the magnetic conductance plate of the actual product is improved, which can improve the direction and magnitude of the magnetic blowout force at the arc root so as to restrain the development of the airflow vortex effectively and solve the problem of arc root stagnation when the small current is interrupted. The simulation results show that the circuit breaker with improved structure has a better performance for a small current interruption range from 100 A to 350 A.     

The Influence of Contact Space on Arc Commutation Process in Air Circuit Breaker

In this paper,a 3D magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) arc simulation model is applied to analyze the arc motion during current interruption in a certain air circuit breaker (ACB).The distributions of pressure,temperature,gas flow and current density of the arc plasma in the arc region are calculated,and the factors influencing the commutation process are analyzed according to the calculated results.Based on the airflow in the arc chamber,the causes of arc commutation asynchrony and the back commutation are investigated.It indicates that a reasonable contact space design is crucial to a successful arc commutation process.To verify the simulation results,the influence of contact space on arc voltage and arc commutation is tested.This research can provide methods and references to the optimization of ACB design.     

基于超级电容储能的中性束注入系统弧电源设计

弧电源是中性束注入加热系统中最关键的设备之一,它的性能决定了弧放电的稳定性及束流引出的品质。为提高弧放电稳定性,降低电网容量,减少对电网的冲击,弧电源拓扑设计采用了基于超级电容储能和开关电源技术的DC/DC变换器结构。利用多个IGBT功率模块并联工作,可提高电源工作频率,实现更快的动态响应速度。在详细分析电源工作过程的基础上,设计了滤波电路和电流快速转移电路,根据电源的要求和具体参数,由一阶RL电路的电流响应特性,精确计算出滤波电感的最小值。最后,利用Matlab对电源性能指标进行了仿真验证,结果表明电源性能完全符合设计要求。     

Calculation of Nozzle Ablation During Arcing Period in an SF6 Auto-Expansion Circuit Breaker

The nozzle ablation process is described as two phases of heat and ablation in the interruption for an SF6 circuit breaker in this paper.Their mathematical models are established with the Fourier heat conduction differential equation respectively.The masses of nozzle ablation with different arc durations and arc currents are calculated through the model of the nozzle ablation combined with an MHD (magneto-hydrodynamic) arc model.The time of the temperature rise on the inner surface of the nozzle under a given energy flux and of reaching the pyrolysis temperature under different energy fluxes is respectively analyzed.The relations between the mass of nozzle ablation and breaking current and arc duration are obtained.The result shows that the absorbing energy process before the nozzle ablation can be neglected under the condition of the energy flux entering into nozzle q ＞ 109 W/m2.The ablation is the severest during the high-current phase and the ablation mass increases rapidly with the breaking current and with arc duration respectively.     

Simulation and Experimental Analysis of Arc Motion Characteristics in Air Circuit Breaker

In this paper, to simulate the arc motion in an air circuit breaker (ACB), a three-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) model is developed, considering the influence of thermal radiation, the change of physical parameters of arc plasma and the nonlinear characteristic of ferromagnetic material. The distributions of pressure, temperature, gas flow and current density of arc plasma in the arc region are calculated. The simulation results show some phenomena which discourage arc interruption, such as back commutation and arc burning at the back of the splitter plate. To verify the simulation model, the arc motion is studied experimentally. The influences of the material and position of the innermost barrier plate are analyzed mainly. It proved that the model developed in this paper can efficiently simulate the arc motion. The results indicate that the insulation barrier plate close to the top of the splitter plate is conducive to the arc splitting, which leads to the signi?cant increase of the arc voltage, so it is better for arc interruption. The research can provide methods and references to the optimization of ACB design.     

Dynamic physical characteristics of DC arc on arcing horn for HVDC grounding electrode line

The dynamic physical characteristics of a DC arc on an arcing horn for a high voltage direct current(HVDC) grounding electrode line are significantly different from those of the switching device arc,secondary arc,AC fault arc and pantograph-catenary arc.In this work,an experimental platform for the DC arc on the arcing horn was built,and mechanisms of the arc column short circuit and arc root movement were studied.This work further analyzes the characteristics and mechanisms of the arc motion wh...     

Simulation of Arc Rotation and Its Effects on Pressure of Expansion Volume in an Auto-Expansion SF6 Circuit Breaker

A 3D Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) arc model in conjunction with an arc move¬ment model is applied to simulate the arc rotation as well as to solve its effect on the pressure in an auto-expansion circuit breaker. The rotation of the arc driven by an external electromagnetic force is simulated in the case with 200 kA of the short circuit current and 16 ms of arc duration. The arc rotating process and the speed of arc rotation have been obtained in the simulation. A comparison of the pressure in the expansion volume with and without an external magnetic field has been carried out based on the calculation results of two cases. The results of the simulation reveal that the arc rotation, which causes more energy exchange between the arc and its surrounding gas, can evidently bring about the pressurization in the expansion volume, which would contribute to more effective arc quenching at current zero and further reducing operation power.     

Evaporation Erosion During the Relay Contact Breaking Process Based on a Simplified Arc Model

Evaporation erosion of the contacts is one of the fundamental failure mechanisms for relays.In this paper,the evaporation erosion characteristics are investigated for the copper contact pair breaking a resistive direct current (dc) 30 V/10 A circuit in the air.Molten pool simulation of thc contacts is coupled with the gas dynamics to cMculate the evaporation rate.A simplified arc model is constructed to obtain the contact voltage and current variations with time for the prediction of the current density and the heat flux distributions flowing from the arc into the contacts.The evaporation rate and mass variations with time during the breaking process are presented.Experiments are carried out to verify the simulation results.     

The Arc Model in SiO2 Current-limiting Fuse

1. IntroductionIn comparison with other switching appliances,fuse is extraodinarily charasterized by a very higharc voltage and a short breaking time, produced dur-ing breaking the short circuit, therefOre, until now)on composite circuit there have been no equivalent, method of testing the capability for high voltage fuse.The test of breaking capacity for fuses requires a setof power supply which can supply high voltage andhigh current simultaneously. Por alternating current,the power supply i…     

Convection effect on an arc plasma evolution process in a two parallel contact system

A low voltage circuit breaker(LVCB) is an important piece of protection equipment which will switch off the fault current in a power system. The moving contact of a low voltage circuit breaker with a higher rated current consists of two parallel contacts. Therefore, the convection effect on the air arc evolution process in a two parallel contact system is analyzed. A threedimensional(3 D) magneto–hydro–dynamic(MHD) model of arc simulation is built. In this model, the anode consists of two parallel contacts and a bonding conductor. A nonlinear voltage–current density characteristic is employed to represent the near-anode and near-cathode voltage. The current density, arc voltage and currents through every contact are obtained. The influence of convection and conduction on the arc evolution process are quantitatively calculated. The displacements of the arc roots are obtained and the asymmetry of the arc root motion is analyzed. The arc evolution process of a two parallel contact system is preliminarily revealed.     

Coupling model of AC filter branch in SF6 circuit breaker during the break process

In this paper, a coupling model of the AC filter branch circuit with the arc plasma in the circuit breaker was built to investigate the arcing process considering the harmonic current. The comparisons among the current at power frequency (50 Hz), power frequency combining the 11th harmonic and power frequency combining the 24th harmonic show that the high-order harmonic current would lead to higher decreasing rate of current before current-zero period. In addition, the influence of arc on the amplitude of high-order harmonic current is not negligible. Thus, the coupling of arc with AC filter branch circuit is quite necessary in the numerical modeling of the circuit breaker in the AC filter branch at the high voltage direct current converter station.     

Measurement of radial temperature distributions of the blown CO_2 arcs under different conditions

In this paper, the radial temperature distributions of the blown CO_2 arcs in a model gas circuit breaker were investigated by optical emission spectroscopy methods. The CO_2 flows with different flow rates(50, 100 and 150 1 min~(-1)) were created to axially blow the arcs burning in a polymethyl methacrylate(PMMA) nozzle. Discharges with different arc currents(200 and 400A) were conducted in the experiment. The absolute intensity method was applied for a carbon ionic line of 657.8 nm to obtain the radial temperature profiles of the arc columns at a cross-section 1 mm above the nozzle. The calibration for the intensity of the CⅡ 657.8 nm line was achieved by the Fowler–Milne method with the help of an oxygen atomic line of 777.2 nm.The highest temperature obtained in the arc center was up to 19 900 K when the arc current was 400 A and the CO_2 flow rate was 50 1 min~(-1), while the lowest temperature in the arc center was about 15 900 K when the arc current was 200 A and the CO_2 flow rate was 150 1min~(-1). The results indicate that as the arc current increases, the temperature in the arc center would also increase apparently, and a larger gas flow rate would lead to a lower central temperature in general. It can also be found that the influence of the CO_2 flow rate on the arc temperature was much less than that of the arc current under the present experimental conditions. In addition,higher temperature in the arc center would cause a sharper temperature decrease from the central region towards the edge.     

A commutation analytical model for quench protection of the CFETR central solenoid model coil

A central solenoid model coil will be set up to develop and verify the technique for the full-size central solenoid coil of the China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor. In case of quench and failures of superconducting coils, the quench protection(QP) system, which employs fuse-based commutation technology, is designed. This paper presents an analytical model to investigate the commutation process in the QP circuit. The model consists of the QP circuit equations, the breaker arc model, the fuse pre-arc model, and the fuse arc model. The model is employed in the whole commutation process including current transfer from breaker branch to the fuse branch model, then from fuse branch to the discharge resistor branch, and current decrease to zero in the discharge resistor. The experiment result verified the effectiveness of the presented model. The model might be helpful for design of the fuse and optimization of the commutation circuit.     

An equivalent model of discharge instability in the discharge chamber of Kaufman ion thruster

The industrial application of the Kaufman ion thruster in its arc stage is limited owing to the instability of the discharge pulse. Presently, a complete prediction model that can predict the discharge pulse in the high-current stage does not exist. In this study, a complete prediction model for the pulse in the ion thruster is established using the zero-dimensional plasma discharge model and equivalent circuit model. The zero-dimensional plasma discharge model is used to obtain the corresponding plasma parameters by calculating the beam current, discharge current, voltage, and gas flow under actual working conditions. The input parameters of the equivalent circuit model are calculated using empirical formulae to acquire the estimated discharge waveforms. The pulse waveforms obtained using the model are found to be consistent with the experimental results. The model is used to evaluate the process of rapid changes in plasma density. Additionally, this model is employed to predict changes in the pulse waveforms when the volume of the discharge chamber and grid plate transmittance are changed.     

基于Saber的5MW中性束注入弧电源仿真设计

强流离子源是HL-2M装置5 MW中性束注入加热系统的核心部件,离子源通过弧电源加速初级电子至高能态,碰撞气体分子,产生等离子体。所以,弧电源对于离子源维持稳定的弧放电非常重要。本文利用Saber软件建立了弧电源的主电路模型,设计并仿真了弧电流的恒流控制、打坑控制以及超级电容的恒流充电控制、恒功率放电控制等。这种方法不仅提高了弧电源电路的分析和设计效率,缩短了系统研制的周期,还可用于实际系统的故障分析和控制参数的整定,降低实验风险。实验结果表明,弧电源的真实输出与仿真输出结果相符。     

Influence of the axial magnetic field on sheath development after current zero in a vacuum circuit breaker

After current zero,which is the moment when the vacuum circuit breaker interrupts a vacuum arc,sheath development is the first process in the dielectric recovery process.An axial magnetic field (AMF) is widely used in the vacuum circuit breaker when the high-current vacuum arc is interrupted.Therefore,it is very important to study the influence of different AMF amplitudes on the sheath development.The objective of this paper is to study the influence of different AMF amplitudes on the sheath development from a micro perspective.Thus,the particle in cell-Monte Carlo collisions (PIC-MCC) method was adopted to develop the sheath development model.We compared the simulation results with the experimental results and then validated the simulation.We also obtained the speed of the sheath development and the energy density of the ions under different AMF amplitudes.The results showed that the larger the AMF amplitudes are,the faster the sheath develops and the lower the ion energy density is,meaning the breakdown is correspondingly more difficult.     

Characteristic Analysis of AC Plasma Arc in Water

An experimental system of AC arc discharge in water was designed with pole-pole electrodes and a peak voltage of 1500 V and a test circuit was set up using virtual instrument technology. The mechanism of an AC plasma arc generated in water was analyzed. The voltage- current characteristic of the AC plasma arc was obtained from the waveform. The temperature characteristic was tested with a spectrum diagnosis system, and the effect of different electrode materials on the striking voltage and peak current was analyzed. The results show that when a power supply of 6 KW is applied on electrodes with a gap of 2 mm in water, the striking voltage is from 900 to 1300 V, the arc voltage is from 40 to 100 V, the arc current is from 2 to 7 A, and the zero rest period is from 1 to 2 ms. In addition, the arc voltage and current are different for electrodes in aluminum, copper and stainless steel. The arc voltage is lower and the current is higher for an aluminum electrode than those for copper and stainless steel ones. The highest temperature of the arc is 7643 K.     

Research of Arc Chamber Optimization Techniques Based on Flow Field and Arc Joint Simulation

The preliminary design of an arc chamber in the 550 kV SF_6 circuit breaker was proposed in accordance with the technical requirements and design experience.The structural optimization was carried out according to the no-load flow field simulation results and verified by no-load pressure measurement.Based on load simulation results such as temperature field variation at the arc area and the tendency of post arc current under different recovery voltage,the second optimal design was completed and its correctness was certificated by a breaking test.Results demonstrate that the interrupting capacity of an arc chamber can be evaluated by the comparison of the gas medium recovery speed and post arc current growth rate.     

Modeling Methods for the Main Switch of High Pulsed-Power Facilities Based on Transmission Line Code

Based on the transmission line code （TLCODE）, a circuit model is developed here for analyses of main switches in the high pulsed-power facilities. With the structure of the ZR main switch as an example, a circuit model topology of the switch is proposed, and in particular, calculation methods of the dynamic inductance and resistance of the switching arc are described. Moreover, a set of closed equations used for calculations of various node voltages are theoretically derived and numericMly discretized. Based on these discrete equations and the Matlab program, a simulation procedure is established for analyses of the ZR main switch. Voltages and currents at different key points are obtained, and comparisons are made with those of a PSpice L-C model. The comparison results show that these two models are perfectly in accord with each other with discrepancy less than 0.1%, which verifies the effectiveness of the TLCODE model to a certain extent.     

Simulation of the Effect of a Metal Vapor Arc on Electrode Erosion in Liquid Metal Current Limiting Device

The effect of arc plasma on electrode erosion in a liquid metal current limiter(LMCL)is studied.Based on a simplified two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic model,the elongated GaInSn metal vapor arc and its contraction process in a liquid metal current limiter are simulated.The distributions of temperature,pressure and velocity of the arc plasma are calculated.The simulation results indicate that the electrode erosion is mainly caused by two high temperature gas jet flows arising from the pressure gradient,which is a result of the non-uniform arc temperature distribution.The gas flows,which act as jets onto the electrode surface,lead to the evaporation of the electrode material form the surface.A redesign structure of the electrode is proposed and implemented according to the analysis,which greatly increased the service life of the electrode.