The Influence of Transient Interrupting Voltage on the Residual Plasma Dissipation in a 10kV Mechanical DC Vacuum Circuit Breaker

The direct current (DC) transmission systems have been developed rapidly in recent years. The vacuum circuit breaker has become a core component of the mechanical DC vacuum circuit breaker due to its excellent performance in extinguishing arc. Compared with the traditional alternating current interruption, an artificial current zero of DC interruption is created by injecting a high frequency current generated by an extra circuit into the vacuum circuit breaker. Therefore, the transient interrupting voltage ˄TIV˅ imposing on the mechanical DC vacuum circuit breaker should be very different from the transient recovery voltage generated by alternating current interruption. The dissipation of residual plasma under the TIV generated by DC interruption is important for post-arc dielectric recovery process and whole interruption performance. However, there are still few discussions about the influence of TIV on the dissipation of residual plasma. In this paper, the evolution of TIV is firstly studied on the basis of a 10kV mechanical DC vacuum circuit breaker. Then a one-dimensional particle-in-cell model is developed to study the influence of TIV on the dissipation of residual plasma.