Thermal transfers of SF6 electrical arcs in high voltage circuit breakers

Abstract

A new approach of thermal transfers modeling in electrical arcs at the opening of a high voltage circuit breaker will be presented. For instance, the arc equations will be coupled with the energy conservation equations. This approach enables to take into account the temporal variations of the temperature and dissipated energies during the extinction phase. On the other hand, the ginite elements method is introduced in order to investigate the temperature profile variations. An arc quenching for a default current of 50 kA, 245 kV, SF6 line breaker has been simulated. The results obtained by this coupling will be compared to applied measurements available through the literature.