Investigation on change laws of arc burning time of the arc plasma

Arc burning time is the time interval from arc burning until arc quenching, which is one of the main symbol parameters of the arc plasma characteristic. As the length of arc burning time can do great influence on the arc energy and the two-phase change process of the break arc directly, it is significant for us to do some researches on its influence factors and change laws. To take the DC break arc between the low power relay contacts for an example, the paper studied the arc burning processes of two typical arc plasma - high purity nitrogen arc and air arc. When the relay contacts break resistant or inductive loads, it gained the relationships between the arc burning time with different atmospheres and load characters, as well as the change laws of arc burning time with the change of arc current and voltage. It also gives some deep analysis and discussions on the experimental results, which combined with the physical mechanism of two-phase change process of the break arc. Finally the paper built a basic mathematics model of arc burning time on the typical arc plasma, which can be helpful for the researchers to know more information about the arc burning process.