Development of the pulse RAG switch

Summary form only given. A rotary arc gap (RAG) switch has been designed as a pulse closing switch to discharge the 500 kJ of stored energy in a capacitor bank. It has two ring electrodes that are maintained axially parallel each other with gap between them joined by insulating spacing element. One of the electrodes has a hole for generation of plasma jet. Triggering of RAG switch is realized by plasma jet from the plasma gun connected to controller output. Both electrodes have cuts dislocated relatively each other. The current feedlines to electrodes are placed in such manner that after closing of the interelectrode gap by pulse plasma jet from plasma gun, and the arc, ignited by triggering, is forced to move along the ring electrodes by self-magnetic field. That is why wearing of electrodes is uniform on all over their surfaces and the switch has quite long lifetime. This switch operates in air atmosphere and needs no additional gas and pumping equipment. It ensures RAG switch trigger in wide range of voltage applied to switch (from 0.7k V up to 11 kV). Peak current discharged through RAG switch reaches up to 400 kA. Transferred charge quantity per pulse reaches 200 Coulombs.