Arc development of triggered vacuum switch with multi-rod electrode system

Abstract

Triggered vacuum switch (TVS) is one of the important switch apparatuses in the high pulsed power system, which takes the vacuum as insulation and arc-extinguishing medium of main gap. The conduction of TVS is the arcing process of vacuum arc in practice. So, it is meaningful to research on the vacuum arc characteristics for the high current application of TVS. A six-gap rod electrode system is studied in this paper. It is made up of 3 pairs of rod electrodes, i.e., spatially interleaved rods of opposite polarity on a ring. The arc development under different high currents is tested and discussed, based on the electrical characteristics of the vacuum arc voltage and arc resistance. The variety of arc voltage shows the parallel arcing and the transfer process in the multi-channel, which is benefit to maintain the diffusion of vacuum arc. A TVS sample based on multi-rod electrode has carried high current of 225 kA in peak and charge transfer of 45 C in a pulse.