CAE Analysis of $SF_6$ Arc Plasma for a Gas Circuit Breaker Design

가스차단기 최적설계를 위한 $SF_6$ 아크 플라즈마 CAE 해석

The design of industrial arc plasma systems is still largely based on trial and error although the situation is rapidly improving because of the available computational power at a cost which is still fast coming down. The desire to predict the behavior of arc plasma system, thus reducing the development cost, has been the motivation of arc research. To interrupt fault current, the most enormous duty of a circuit breaker, is achieved by separating two contacts in a interruption medium, $SF_{6}$ gas or air etc., and arc plasma is inevitably established between the contacts. The arc must be controlled and interrupted at an appropriate current zero. In order to analyze arc behavior in $SF_{6}$ gas circuit breakers, a numerical calculation method combined with flow field and electromagnetic field has been developed. The method has been applied to model arc generated in the Aachen nozzle and compared the results with the experimental results. Next, we have simulated the unsteady flow characteristics to be induced by arcing of AC cycle, and conformed that the method can predict arc behavior in account of thermal transport to $SF_{6}$ gas around the arc, such as increase of arc voltage near current zero and dependency of arc radius on arc current to maintain constant arc current density.