Cathode and Anode Bright-Spot Behaviors of Breaking Arc between Electrical Contacts with Low Separating Speed

Takayoshi ENDO
Junya SEKIKAWA
Takayoshi KUBONO

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics   Vol.E88-C    No.8    pp.1596-1602
Publication Date: 2005/08/01
Online ISSN: 
DOI: 10.1093/ietele/e88-c.8.1596
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on Recent Development of Electro-Mechanical Devices--Selected Papers from International Session on Electro-Mechanical Devices 2004 (IS-EMD2004)--)
Category: Arc Discharge & Related Phenomena
Keyword: 
arc discharge,  bright spot,  electrical contact,  breaking arc,  high-speed camera,  

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Summary: 
In each contact material (Ag, Cu, Ni, and Fe), the breaking arcs occurring between an electrical contact pair in a resistive circuit of DC42 V/10.5 A were observed with a high-speed camera (1000 frames/s). Arc voltage and arc current were also measured simultaneously. By analyzing cathode and anode bright spots in the photographs, the positions of cathode and anode bright spots on contact surfaces were plotted on the graph. As a result, cathode and anode bright spots were found to express the characteristic motion in each material. Moreover, by comparing those results with the photograph of contact surface after all operations.