The effects of contact material and contact geometry on high current interruption in vacuum

Abstract

These days vacuum circuit breakers are more and more used in electricity grids
with voltages up to 40 kV. Two ofthe most important parameters regarding the
interruption performance ofthese vacuum circuit breakers are the contact material and the contact geometry. The aim ofthis master's project was to investigate the influence ofthese two parameters on the interruption performance in order to give a classification ofthe investigated contacts. Criteria for the classification are: the number of reignitions, the reignition vohages or reignition field strengths and the erosion ofthe contacts. Butt-type and coil-type contacts were used as contact geometries.

The interruption performance ofthese contacts is measured using a Weil-Dobke
synthetic circuit and a high speed camera that bas been developed at KEMA.

Date of Award	1996
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Electrical Engineering
Supervisor	Geert C. Damstra (Supervisor 1) & W.F.H. Merck (Supervisor 2)