7th International Conference on Electric Power Equipment– Switching Technology (ICEPE 2024)

The uneven potential distribution of the multi-stage suspension shield in high-voltage vacuum interrupters has a significant impact on the breaking process，in order to investigate the effect of shield voltage equalization  configuration on the post-arc particle transport characteristics, this paper constructs a 126kV self-voltage equalization vacuum interrupter PIC (Particle In Cell) model. The influence of shield voltage equalization configuration on the macroscopic electrical parameters and microscopic particle movement process in the post-arc stage of the 126kV vacuum circuit breaker interrupter chamber with single-break and double-break is studied. The post-arc current, post-arc electric field, sheath development and particle transport dynamics were analyzed. The results show that for the 126kV single-break vacuum interrupter, the shield equalization configuration can reduce the post-arc current, optimize the distribution of the post-arc electric field and accelerate the development of the post-arc sheath, among which the self-voltage equalization configuration using multi-stage suspended shield equalization has the best effect. Secondly, for the 126kV double-break vacuum interrupter, the self-volage equalization configuration can not only reduce the post-arc current, accelerate the development of the sheath and improve the electric field distribution, but also make the development of the sheath of the two breaks more synchronized, which is more favorable for the post-arc media recovery process of the series break vacuum interrupter chamber. The research work in this paper has a certain guiding significance for the study of the development of high voltage level self-voltage equalization vacuum interrupter.