Size of Molten Metal Bridge Conducting DC Current in Different Contact Strip Materials

Abstract

Numerical simulations are commonly used to elucidate the arc phenomenon in electrical railways and analyze its physical property variations. However, the initial conditions of the molten metal bridge must be set to accurately mimic the arc phenomenon. Therefore, the radius and length of the molten metal bridge are experimentally measured immediately before arc generation for four different contact strip materials as the cathode and copper contact wire as the anode. It found that the radius and length of molten metal bridge both proportional to the current regardless of the contact strip material.