Study of the arc-electrode interaction in a SF6 self-blast circuit breaker

To study the interaction between the electrode and the electrical are in a SF6 self-blast circuit breaker, a coupling between experimental and theoret ical approaches is proposed. The experimental approach allows physical vari ables such as the temperature just below the contact surface and the total metallic vapour mass in the electrical are to be measured. The theoretical study is based on a hydrodynamic model for electrical are modelling, which takes into account Joule heating, radiation and real-gas effects. The arc/e lectrode interaction model is built on an energy balance at the boundary be tween the gas flow (the are) and the electrode (cathode or anode). The vali dation is obtained through comparisons between measured and calculated resu lts.