Electrode fall voltage of arc between deion plates during direct-current interruption period

A direct-current low-voltage circuit breaker has an arc chute that consists of a stack of several metallic deion plates. The deion plate is also called a splitter plate. The function of the deion plates is to split the arc into several series short-gap arcs. This phenomenon leads to the emergence of electrode fall voltages in the arc chute, eventually contributing to rise in the total arc-voltage in the circuit breaker and to successful current-interruption. The electrode fall voltage therefore plays an important role for successful current-interruption.

The present paper describes the estimation result for the electrode fall voltage $v_{\text{ele}}$ of the arc between steel deion plates. The estimation is performed by using a newly devised method. This method utilizes the voltage $v_{\text{chute}}$ measured across the arc chute and eventually derives $v_{\text{ele}}$ on the basis of the statistics: a correlation coefficient between an arc-column electric-field strength $E_{\text{col}}$ and an arc current i. Adopting the devised method enabled us to derive 19 V as $v_{\text{ele}}$. Verification is furthermore made to show the validity of the determined electrode-fall voltage, 19 V. (paper)