Fundamental study on re-ignition process for CO₂-blast arcs in a model circuit breaker using synthetic tests highly controlled by power semiconductors

This paper reports fundamental measurement results on re-ignition process in synthetic tests for CO₂ arcs in a gas blast nozzle. The synthetic test system used comprises a DC current source for an arc ignition, a half cycle AC current source, a DC current source for artificial current zero point and an impulse-like voltage source for application of quasi-transient recovery voltage (quasi-TRV). The electric current and voltage were switched by power-semiconductor-switches to guarantee high time-accuracy of the arc current injection and voltage application. After current zero point, quasi-TRV with a peak of 7.5 kV was applied between the electrodes with a precise specified delay time t_d to judge arc re-ignition. The results indicated that t_d = 25 μs involves 60% probability of arc re-ignition. The re-ignition was inferred to originate in thermal mode from joule heating by a small current injection to the residual arc during the quasi-TRV application.