High-Current Anode Phenomena in Vacuum Arcs

The emerging interest on the application of vacuum interrupter (VI) in medium and even high-voltage application has led to increase of comprehensive and fundamental research on VIs. Application of these interrupters is however hindered by limitation of interrupting capability, when high-current anode phenomena occur.
The goal of the work is to investigate the high-current anode phenomena using spectroscopic methods se well as electrical measurements. Different current waveforms, i.e. AC and DC pulses are applied. Moreover, the impact of vacuum interrupter properties, e.g. electrode diameter and geometries, contact materials, opening time and opening speed on the formation of high-current anode phenomena are investigated. The results reveal that the threshold current of the high-current anode formation is dominated by the current in case of high-frequency pulsed, whereas in case of pulsed DC, it is controlled by transferred charge.