The behavior of Fast Elongating Arcs Plasma in Current Limiting Circuit Breakers

Arc voltage can be controlled by parameters like thermal dissipation and elongation of the switching arc in different geometries. These features have been used for the design of a fast opening Medium Voltage circuit breaker (CB) with significantly increased arc voltage compared to conventional breakers. Due to the increased arc voltage, it is possible to realize higher breaking capacities and to provide fault current limitation. In this work, the behavior of fast elongating electric arcs in ambient pressure air has been studied experimentally.