Research on transport properties of the metal vapor vacuum arc

Metal vapor arc is inevitably occurred during the interruption of the vacuum circuit breaker (VCB). In this paper, a micro arc model of the metal vapor for the VCB is proposed based on the Eindhoven model, and the transport property coefficients and the electrical conductivity distribution are calculated. And the influences of temperature, pressure and particle collision on the electrical conductivity have been obtained. Based on the thermodynamic equilibrium model and the Boltzmann method, the variations of arc conductivity with the particle density, temperature and vacuum degree has been found, and the quantitative descriptions of the transport properties have been obtained.