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High Temperature Material Processes (An International Quarterly of High-Technology Plasma Processes)

An International Journal

ISSN for PRINT: 1093-3611

Institutional price:	$652.00
Issues per year:	4

Best Paper Award Selection - Editorial Board Site

2008, Volume12

167 pages

DOI: 10.1615/HighTempMatProc.v12.i1-2

PARAMETRICAL STUDY OF THE ARC−MATERIAL INTERACTION INFLUENCE ON THE CIRCUIT BREAKER PERFORMANCES

Jean-Pierre Toumazet
Electrical Engineering Laboratory of Montluçon, I. U. T., Avenue Aristide BRIAND, 03100 Montluçon, France

Corinne Brdys
Electrical Engineering Laboratory of Montluçon, I. U. T., Avenue Aristide BRIAND, 03100 Montluçon, France

Denis Cajal
Electrical Engineering Laboratory of Montluçon, I. U. T., Avenue Aristide BRIAND, 03100 Montluçon, France

Francis Gary
Electrical Engineering Laboratory of Montluçon, I. U. T., Avenue Aristide BRIAND, 03100 Montluçon, France

Alain Laurent
Electrical Engineering Laboratory of Montluçon, I. U. T., Avenue Aristide BRIAND, 03100 Montluçon, France

Jean-Luc Ponthenier
Research Centre A2, Schneider Electric, F-38050 Grenoble Cedex 09, France

ABSTRACT

The breaking devices improvement is an important research area. High temperature phenomena, creating ablation on both contact materials and walls of the breaking chamber are very complex to understand, and so to model, because of the electric break arc phenomena complexity, but also because of the breaking device complexity.
As many parameters are involved in arc behavior understanding, the most reliable solution to determine the influence of one parameter is to realize parametrical studies, based on measurement.
Breaking devices manufacturers try to carry on such studies, but they are limited by available means of diagnostic. The aim of our study is to offer a precise, reliable and powerful diagnostic tool, using magnetic measurement, enabling to know the arc shape and position with a cadence of 1 million frames per second.
This tool has been used to determine the geometrical dimensions influence on the breaking device quality. The geometrical configuration influence on the thermal erosion of breaking device elements has specially been investigated. Results obtained especially show the advantages of a breaking chamber associated with a very confined volume for performance improvement of breaking devices.