Title: Optical Diagnostics of Arc Transfer Phenomena in Low Voltage Circuit Breakers
Abstract: In most of the miniature low voltage circuit breaker, the short circuit current interruption is based on the arc displacement from an initiation area to a quenching area. The works presented herein focus on the phenomena occuring during the current transfer phase when the arc is departing from the arcing contact region.The investigations were performed with both imaging and spectroscopy technique. A new multishot electronic camera was used. It allowed to recordseveral pictures in a row during the arc presence time of a few milliseconds and with exposure times down to 100ns. The use of in-terferential filters enabled us to show off the radiation spatial distribution of characteristic species like copper, hydrogen or molecular carbon. Thus it was established that the arc transfer phase firstly takes place through a low temperature diffuse arc plasma form. Then the squeezing of some parts of the plasma leads to the formation of two arcs in parallel. Spectroscopy measurements on copper lines give temperatures included in the range 8 500 - 11000K.
Publication Year: 1997
Publication Date: 1997-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 2
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