Analysis of electron and heavy particle velocity distribution under consideration of nonthermal equilibrium arc

Abstract

The circuit breaker is required to interrupt the current in order to prevent the spreading fault current. The reignition caused by the remaining high‐temperature gas in the opening of circuit breaker occurs. As this countermeasure, the external magnetic field application and blast gas to arc are used in order to decrease the arc temperature. It has been reported that the nonthermal equilibrium of arc is remarkable near the electrode and post arc. However, few reports have the analysis of separating electron and heavy particle momentums under consideration of the nonthermal equilibrium because the physical phenomena are complicated in the nonthermal equilibrium. In this paper, the electron and heavy particle velocity distribution under consideration of nonthermal equilibrium arc were analyzed. As a result, it is possible to quantify the electron and heavy particle velocity. The electron velocity distribution is dominant to the electric potential distribution. On the other hand, the heavy particle velocity distribution is dominant to the pressure gradient. Therefore, the difference between the electron and heavy particle velocity distribution was elucidated.

Analyzing Cathode and Anode Spot Movements of Atmospheric Arc Plasma in Parallel Electrodes Using Thermal Field Theory and Thermal Nonequilibrium Model

“…It assumes that the new anode spot is located where its electrical conductivity is higher than that at its periphery, and the cause of this electrical conductivity increment is important for elucidating the re-strike phenomenon occurrence. In this study, a thermal nonequilibrium model [11,12] was used to analyze the electron and heavy particles (ions and neutral particles) temperature distributions immediately before the re-strike phenomenon occurrence. Moreover, the electrical conductivity was calculated based on the electron or heavy particles (ions and neutral particles) temperature, to determine the triggering factor of the electrical conductivity increment.…”

“…The time step is set as 10 μs for capturing the temperature variation. Specifically, the electron and heavy particles (ions and neutral particles) temperatures are calculated using different energy conservations, as expressed as follows [11,12,29,30]. Energy conservation equation of electrons:…”

Analysis of Adverse Influence of Metal Vapor to Arc Movement Between Electrodes with External Magnetic Field Applied by Numerical Simulation

“…The governing equations used in this study include: the mass conservation, momentum conservation, energy conservation, current continuity, Maxwell‐Ampere equations, and metal vapor conservation equations [14–17]. These equations were discretized by the finite volume method over the entire calculation area using the tridiagonal matrix algorithm method [18–20]. The pressure and velocity fields were analyzed by the semi‐implicit method for the revised pressure‐linked equations [21,22].…”

Cathode Spot Velocity of Atmospheric Arc Plasma after Arc Ignition Affected by Self and External Electromagnetic Force between Parallel Electrodes Using 3D Numerical Simulation

“…The cathode, arc plasma and the anode are integrated as one, and the interactions between them are considered and The governing equations in this paper are similar with the authors' previous paper [5][6][7][8], which are discretized by TDMA method [9][10][11] and analyzed by SIMPLER method [12,13]. The details will not be repeated in here.…”