• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2500-2505
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• 2007

The vacuum interrupter (VI) is used for medium-voltage switching circuits due to its abilities and advantages as a compact and environmental friendly circuit breaker. In general, the application of a sufficiently strong axial magnetic field (AMF) permits the arc to be maintained in a diffused mode to a high-current vacuum arc. A full understanding of the vacuum arc physics is very important since it can aid to improve the performance of vacuum interrupter. In order to 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, we have investigated the electromagnetic behaviors of high-current vacuum arcs for two different types of AMF contacts, which are coil-type and cup-type, using a commercial finite element analysis (FEA) package, ANSYS. The present results are compared with those of MAXWELL 3D, a reliable electromagnetic analysis software, for verification.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.7-12
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• 2008

The vacuum interrupter (VI) is used for medium-voltage switching circuits due to its abilities and advantages as a compacted environmental friendly circuit breaker. In general, the application of a sufficiently strong axial magnetic field (AMF) permits the arc to be maintained in a diffused mode to a high-current vacuum arc. A full understanding of the vacuum arc physics is very important since it can aid to improve the performance of vacuum interrupter. In order to 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, we have investigated the effect of changing geometrical parameters for electromagnetic behaviors of high-current vacuum arcs with two different types of AMP contacts, which are coil-type and cup-type, using a commercial finite element analysis (FEA) package, ANSYS. The present results are compared with those of MAXWELL 3D, a reliable electromagnetic analysis software, for verification.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.2515-2518
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• 2008

The vacuum interrupter (VI) is widely used in medium-voltage switching circuits due to its abilities and advantages as an environmental friendly circuit breaker. An understanding of the vacuum arc flow phenomena is very important for improving the performance of vacuum interrupter. In order to 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 the thermal flow fields, simultaneously. In this study, we have investigated arc plasma constriction phenomena and an effect of AMF on the arc plasma with the high-current vacuum arcs for the cup-type AMF electrode by using a commercial finite element analysis (FEA) package, ANSYS. The simulation results applied with various AMFs and constant Joule heat generation show that strong axial magnetic field (AMF) permits the arc to be maintained in a diffused mode to a high-current vacuum arc. However, further studies are required on the two-way coupling method and radiation model for arc plasma in order to accomplish the advanced analysis method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.480-480
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• 2008

Vacuum circuit breaker(VCB) is now emerging as an alternative of gas circuit breaker(GCB) which uses SF6 gas as insulating material whose dielectric strength is outstanding. But we have to reduce SF6 gas because SF6 gas is one of greenhouse gas and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas are now trend of the world. Therefore, we can say VCB is the optimal alternative of GCB because vacuum is environmentally friendly. The vacuum interrupter is the core part of VCB to interrupt arcing current. There are mainly two methods to extinguish arc. One is radial magnetic field (RMF) method and the other is axial magnetic field (AMF) method. We deals with RMF method in this paper. Compared with AMP, RMF arc quenching method has different principle to extinguish arc. In case of RMF method, pinch effect is much larger than AMF method. Because of pinch effect RMF type contact electrodes have the single large spot which is severly damaged and melted while AMF type contact electrodes have small and multiple spots which are slightly damaged and melted. To prevent contact electrode being damaged and melted from high temperature-arc, RMF method uses Lorentz force to move arc. In this paper we calculated and compared the arc driving force of two cases and we analyzed the force acting on each part of arc by means of commercial finite element method software Maxwell 3D. They have 3petals and we considered two cases. One is the case when fixed(upper) and movable(lower) contacts are in mirror arrangement (Case 1). The other is the case when one of two contacts (movable contact) is revolved at maximum angle as possible as it can be (Case 2). And at each case above, we analyzed arc driving force at two positions, position 1 is the closest to the center of contact and position 2 is near the edge of petal on fixed contact. As a result we could find that Case 2 generated stronger arc driving force than Case 1 at position 1. But at position 2 Case 1 generated stronger arc driving force than Case 2. This simulation method can contribute to optimizing spiral-type electrode designs in a view of arc driving force.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• summer
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• pp.878-880
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• 2004

In this paper, a new design of permanent magnetic actuator (PMA) for vacuum circuit breaker (VCB) with one coil is proposed. Electromagnetic characteristic analysis is performed numerically using finite element method (FEM) considering the nonlinearity of magnetic core and permanent magnet. The characteristics of proposed PMA with one coil is similar with that of the conventional PMA with two coils. The proposed PMA can simplify the control circuit because of the usage of one coil. Therefore, the reliability of VCB can be improved with the proposed model.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.895-900
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• 2001

It is very important for impact analysis to reflect the dynamic characteristics of materials as well as the static characteristics. As the dynamic behavior of a material is different from the static(or quasi-static) one due to the inertia effect and the stress wave propagation, an adequate experimental technique has to be developed to obtain the dynamic responses for the corresponding level of the strain rate. To determine the dynamic characteristics of materials, the Hopkinson bar (compression type) experiment is carried out. For using dynamic material properties, Johnson-Cook model is applied in impact analysis with explicit finite element method

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1994.07b
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• pp.1603-1605
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• 1994

Recently, Gas Circuit Breakers are rapidly replacing Vacuum Circuit Breakers in the medium voltage switchgear. This is due to the improved performance of - GCB in interrupting capability, price, weight, size etc., while the countermeasure to suppress the switching surges of VCB has not been satisfactory. Intensive research works on the GCB have been conducted in the world widely since 1980. Nowadays it is well known that the thermal expansion type GCB can provide- better performance than puffer type in the distribution power system. KERI has conducted researches in the GCB rated at 25.8kV 25kA with Jinkwang Co. using the thermal expantion principle since 1993. In this paper, the calculated results of electric and magnetic fields for the model GCB are presented and analyzed. The effect of permanent magnet used to improve the interruption capabilty at the low current level is also investigated. The design parameters for the interrupter inspected through the short-circuit tests conducted at high power laboratory of KERI.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.344-344
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• 2011

진공인터럽터는 진공차단기에서 실제 사고전류차단시 발생하는 아크소호 및 차단을 담당하는 매우 중요한 부분이다. 일반적으로 교류차단기는 일시적으로 에너지가 공급되지 않는 전류 영점에서 아크소호 및 전류차단이 이루어진다. 일반적으로 아크가 발생하는 전극분리시점에서 아크가 소호되는 전류영점까지의 시간을 아크지속시간(arcing time)이라고 한다. 일단 진공 인터럽터 내부의 접점이 분리됨과 동시에 아크가 발생하게되면 이때 진공인터럽터는 아크지속시간동안 고온의 아크에 의한 접점손상을 최소화하기 위해 아크의 거동을 적절히 제어하여 아크에너지를 접점표면상에 골고루 분산시켜야 한다. 현재 진공인터럽터에 사용되는 아크제어 방식에는 크게 횡자계 방식과 축자계 방식이 있다. 본 논문에서는 횡자계 방식 중 spiral type 접점을 사용하여 25 kA의 전류차단시험을 진행하면서 아크전압을 취득하는 동시에 아크이미지를 촬영하여 아크지속시간동안의 아크의 거동을 분석하였는데 특히 본 실험에서는 전체 아크지속시간동안의 아크상태천이과정이 가장 잘 관찰되는 비교적 긴 아크지속시간을 설정하여 실험을 진행하였으며 이때 접점손상이 아크거동 및 차단성능에 미치는 영향을 중점적으로 다루었다.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.630-635
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• 2015

A vacuum Interrupter (VI), a core part that composes the breaking part of medium-voltage vacuum circuit breaker (VCB), has the excellent insulation performance and arc-extinguishing capability. $SF_6$ gas had been used for the external insulation of VIs since the dielectric strength of $SF_6$ gas is superior to that of other insulation gases. However, because of environmental problems related with global warming, a solid-insulated technology was recently researched. The functionally graded material (FGM), as changing spatially the distribution of the relative permittivity inside an insulator, can reduce the electric field stress at the specific region. Especially, the external insulation performance of the VI with the molded FGM insulator is greatly improved as compared with that of the existing VI or the VI with a new external shield. In this paper, the effectiveness of this FGM insulator is verified by the numerical simulation.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06c
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• pp.476-481
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• 2001

In a vacuum circuit breaker mechanism, a spring-actuated linkage system is used to satisfy the desired opening and closing characteristics of electric contacts. Because the opening dynamics of electric contacts is determined by such a linkage system, the stiffness, free length and attachment points of a spring become the important design parameters. In this paper, based on the energy conservation that the total system energy is constant throughout the operating range of a mechanism, a systematic design procedure of determining the spring design parameters is presented. The proposed procedure is applied to the design of an opening spring for satisfying the specified opening characteristics.