Study of the properties of high intensity switching under 36 VDC. Influence of the contact material

Stability, spatial extension and extinction of an electric arc in aeronautical conditions of pressure under 540 V DC

“…In these experimental conditions, the maximum length of the arc may reach some millimeters and it is an increasing function of the arc current intensity. Rare works concern copper electrodes and higher supply voltage [11,12]. In this case (I arc > 100 A) it was observed that the length of the arc was not necessarily an increasing function of the intensity of the current, but that it appeared for high intensities, electromagnetic instabilities which deform the arc column.…”

“…For every current values considered in this work, electric arc is even more unstable as the pressure is high and the mean stability length is in the range [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] cm. The influence of arc current intensity is more pronounced for pressure values below 6 Â 10 4 Pa.…”

“…Using these values to extrapolate the arc length for U sup = 540 V DC generates an important dispersion in d max value. For instance for I arc ≈ 30 A and P = 2.5 Â10 4 Pa d max will be in the range [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] cm and for I arc ≈ 100 A an estimation of d max is in the range [28-38] cm.…”