Open AccessInvestigating field emission current in vacuum interrupters to estimate vacuum pressure level using PIC simulation
Author(s) -
Rezvani Mohammad,
Bathaee Seyed Mohammad Taghi,
Akbari Asghar
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
international transactions on electrical energy systems
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.428
H-Index - 42
ISSN - 2050-7038
DOI - 10.1002/etep.2198
Subject(s) - current (fluid) , vacuum arc , residual , impulse (physics) , circuit breaker , mechanics , electrical engineering , materials science , physics , engineering , computer science , cathode , algorithm , quantum mechanics
Summary Condition monitoring of vacuum circuit breaker is one of the important factors to determine its life time. This is through a close monitoring of the internal pressure of vacuum interrupter for vacuum circuit breaker conditioning. The rise of internal pressure exceeding a certain threshold value causes loss of current switching capability and electric insulating properties. In recent decades, many methods of determining internal pressure have been investigated to evaluate the influences of different parameters. Although most of them are based on experimental tests, none of them was satisfying and reliable to provide enough information about residual vacuum pressure. Thus, the field emission current is modeled and simulated in this paper using plasma modeling by particle in cell method in order to determine the correlation between current and vacuum pressure. The simulation results demonstrate that a more precise value of internal vacuum pressure is given by applying magnetic field with impulse current simultaneously in order to determine residual vacuum pressure. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.