Power flux brought by an electric arc on AgSnO2 electrodes

Romaric Landfried (1) , Frédéric Houzé (1) , Thierry Leblanc (1) , Philippe [e-mail] Teste (1)

1 GeePs - Laboratoire Génie électrique et électronique de Paris

In this paper a method is described which allows estimating the power flux brought by an electric arc on the electrodes. This information is highly important for the understanding of contact erosion mechanisms, as well as for the practical choice of appropriate materials and sizes in switching devices applications. Our method is applied to the case of Ag-SnO 2 electrodes. Compatibility conditions between experimental values of mass loss in well-defined situations and numerical calculations of melted/vaporized metal lead to a maximum surface power density of 8×10 9 W/m 2 for cathode and 2×10 9 W/m 2 for anode. Moreover it is found that less than 16% of the total power brought to the electrodes contributes to metal phase changes.

Mots clés: power flux; electric arc; contact erosion mechanisms; melted/vaporized metal lead; maximum surface power density; electrodes; Ag-SnO2

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

Romaric Landfried, Frédéric Houzé, Thierry Leblanc, Philippe [e-mail] Teste. Power flux brought by an electric arc on AgSnO2 electrodes. 63rd IEEE Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts, Sep 2017, Denver, United States. pp.204-207, ⟨10.1109/holm.2017.8088087⟩. ⟨hal-01591486⟩