Study on Factor of the Quenching Performance on the Polymer Material Characteristics of an Air Circuit Breaker

Abstract

Usage of polymer materials in a quenching chamber is one of the most effective methods of improving performance of an air circuit breaker [1, 2]. During a high current interruption in the air circuit breaker, an arc discharge touches the insulator, and ablation gasses are emitted [3]. It is considered that the quenching performance and an arc characteristic are affected by this ablation gasses. In order to clarify the quenching performance of each polymer material, we are conducting the experiments. With these experiments, the relationships of the ablation gasses among the number of arcing cycles, arcing peak voltage, arcing conductances, and the pressure rise will be discussed with four kinds of polymer materials.