Numerical Study on a Diffused-mode Arc within a Vacuum Interrupter

진공차단부에서 발생하는 확산형 아크 수치해석

In order to more closely examine the vacuum arc phenomena, it is necessary to predict the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) characteristics by the multidisciplinary numerical modeling, which is coupled with the electromagnetic and hydrodynamic fields, simultaneously. In this study, the thermal-fluid characteristics of high current vacuum arcs were calculated by a commercial multiphysics package, ANSYS, in order to obtain Joule heat, Lorentz force and the interactions with flow variables. We assumed the diffused-mode arc within an AMF vacuum interrupter. It was found with four different currents that the temperature distributions on the anode surface are diffused uniformly without concentration in 7kA for both types (cup and coil-type). But the arc plasma transition and an increase of thermal flux density for increasing the applied current have caused the change of temperature distributions on the anode surface. We should need further studies on the two-way coupling method and radiation model for arc plasmas in order to accomplish the advanced analysis method for multiphysics.