Arc igniting mechanism analysis of high voltage interrupter based on PIC-MCC method

In order to explain the mechanism of high voltage interrupter, a particle in cell method is used in our work to simulate the breakdown process before arc formation of vacuum and SF6 circuit breaker. The electrons and ions which play vital roles in this process are traced by Newton equation. The electrons from field emission, impact ionization and secondary electron emission are all considered in our simulation. The effect of space charge on the motion of charged particles is considered here. Constant time step method of Monte Carlo is used to cope with the collisions between the particles. For vacuum breaker, the exciting, elastic and ionizing collisions between electrons and metallic vapor atoms have been considered here and for SF6, momentum transfer, excitation, dissociative ionization and attachment are considered. The simulation results explore the breaking mechanisms of different circuit breaker and have some values on arc quenching research.