High current arc behaviour between steel plates: An insight into the deion
Résumé
During a short-circuit in a miniature circuit breaker, the electric arc is driven towards a stack of metal plates called deion with enough strength to split the arc into several arcs. The total voltage then increases, resulting in a limitation of the current. A high and stable arc voltage is therefore essential for the performance of the circuit breaker. This overall arc quenching process is fairly complex and, unfortunately, difficult to study because of the challenge of carrying out non-intrusive arc observations. To gain a better understanding of arc behaviour from its splitting up to extinction, a high current electric arc is triggered between two metal plates in conditions similar to those of a miniature circuit breaker arc chamber, but allow ing for an easier diagnostic.