4th International Conference on Electric Power Equipment– Switching Technology (ICEPE-2017)

614 / 2017-05-15 17:26:59

Arcing Duration and Erosion of CuW Contact in DC Load and Different Surrounding Atmospheres

Surrounding Atmospheres , Arcing duration, Contact erosion, DC load

Surrounding atmospheres in hermetically sealed switching devices play very important role in arcing extinction and electrical endurance. To better understand the effects of atmosphere on arcing duration and erosion, experiments were conducted with the CuW70 contact material under DC supply voltage 200-500V and surrounding atmospheres N2, O2,CO2 and air respectively. It is found that sequence of breaking arc duration values is changed when the the supply voltage is increased, O2 and air are always with longer arcing durations, CO2 showed lower arcing duration than that of N2 in cases of 400-500Vdc. Experiments also indicated the anodes showed mass loss in all atmospheres, but the cathode showed mass loss in air, N2, mass gain in CO2 and O2.