Evaluation and Simulation of Black-box Arc Models for High-Voltage Circuit-Breakers

Abstract: The task for this Master thesis was to evaluate different black-box arc models for circuit-breakers with the purpose of finding criteria for the breaking ability. A black-box model is a model that requires no knowledge from the user of the underlying physical processes. Black-box arc models have been used in circuit-breaker development for many years. Arc voltages from tests made in the High Power Laboratory in Ludvika were used for validation, along with the resistance calculated at current zero, R0, and 500 ns before current zero, R500. Three different arc models were evaluated: Cassie-Mayr, KEMA and an arc model based on power calculations. The third model gave very good results and if the model is developed further, the breaking ability could easily be estimated. The arc model based on power calculations could be improved by using better approximations of the quantities in the model, and by representing the current better. A further suggestion for the following work is to combine the second arc model tested, the KEMA model, with the model based on power calculations in order to estimate the KEMA model parameters. The R0 and R500 values should also be calculated from more tests, in order to find a clear limit of the breaking ability.