XXVth Int. Symp.

on Discharges and Electrical Insulation in Vacuum - Tomsk – 2012

Simulation and experimental studies of anode

activities in high-current vacuum arcs
Shenli Jia, Dingge Yang, Lijun Wang and Zongqian Shi
State Key Laboratory of Electrical Insulation and Power Electrical, School of Electrical Engineering,
Xi’an Jiaotong University

Abstract- The anode activities are critical for
high-current vacuum arc characteristics, especially the
interruption performance of vacuum interrupters. In
order to understand the anode thermal process, a 2-D
transient model was established. The simulation could
provide temporal and spatial variation of anode
temperature, the melting width and depth which have
been validated by comparison with experiments. The
basic features of anode erosion have been experimental
investigated and the relation with the arc modes has been
analyzed. A clockwise swirl flow of the liquid metal was
found on anode surface under high current. Subsequent
experiments indicated that the axial magnetic field
(AMF) has great influence on the anode swirl flow. Both
the theoretical analysis and experimental results shown
that it is not the electromagnetic force but the interaction
between ions from the inclined cathode plasma jets and
the anode melting pool that leads to the observed swirl
flow.
I. INTRODUCTION
It is well known that inside the vacuum interrupters,
the vacuum arc is in diffuse state and the arc plasma
mainly comes from cathode spots when arc current is
not very high and a moderate axial magnetic field
(AMF) is applied. At the diffuse state, homogeneous
heat flux to anode could avoid overheating at single
locations, only cathode erosion can be found and the
anode is still in passive state. However, when arc
current exceeds a critical value, anode becomes active
due to large and inhomogeneous heat flux from arc
column to anode, which becomes a new source of
metal vapor and arc plasma. At the same time, the
anode evaporation can influence the high-current
vacuum arc (HCVA) characteristics, such as arc
appearance and cathode spots distribution. Meanwhile,
anode activities have great influence on the
interruption performance of vacuum interrupters as
excessive metal vapor at current zero may lead to
interruption failure.
In order to investigate anode activities in HCVA in
detail, a 2-D transient model was established to
simulate the anode thermal process in this paper. The
temporal and spatial variations of anode temperature,
the melting width and depth were obtained.
Meanwhile, the basic features of anode erosion of
cup-shaped AMF contacts were studied by
experiments. A swirl flow of liquid metal on anode
surface was found on AMF electrode and its formation
mechanism was clarified.
II. SIMULATION OF ANODE THERMAL PROCESS
A. Simulation model
The physical model of anode thermal process is
shown in Fig. 1, which is a symmetric transient 2-D
model. Only half of the anode contact plate was
modeled. In Fig. 1, AB is the anode surface, BC is the
anode side surface, CD is the anode bottom, and OZ is
the symmetrical axis. In this model, only energy loss
due to melting and evaporation of contact material is
considered besides heat conduction. The radiation
cooling, convection of liquid metal and mass loss due
to ejection of liquid droplets were all neglected.
The boundary conditions at BC, OC and OZ were
adiabatic, and the boundary condition at anode surface
was defined by combining the actions of heat flux
density to anode qin and the evaporation cooling from
anode surface qev. In order to simulate the anode
thermal process of actual HCVA, qin is obtained from
a 2-D MHD model of arc column [1], where the
variation of arc current, the AMF distribution of
commercial electrode and its lag are all considered.
The solution is essentially the iteration between the
energy equation and the liquid fraction equation,
which can be seen clearly in [2].
Fig. 1. Physical model of anode thermal process
B. Typical simulation results
When the power frequency (50Hz) arc current is
20kA (peak value) and the anode diamater is 41mm,
the typical simulation results are given here.
The temporal variation of temperature at the center
of anode surface is shown in Fig. 2. The inflection
points A and B near the melting point correspond to
the phase change moment of copper. The radial
distributions of temperature at anode surface at
different moments are given in Fig. 3. The variations
of melting width and max melting depth of anode are
also shown in Fig. 4. The anode melting process keeps
about 12ms, the maximal melting width is 14mm at

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313
t=8ms and the maximum melting depth is 0.41mm at erosion becomes seriously on both electrodes.
t=9ms. However, the anode erosion is severer than cathode
Based on the radial temperature distributions in Fig. due to different erosion mechanism. The cathode
3, the radial distribution of anode vapor flux can be erosion is attributed to ejection of cathode jets from
obtained ，
which can be used to simulate the the tiny cathode spots. As the distribution of cathode
interaction between vacuum arc plasma and anode spots is comparatively homogeneous and the current
vapor. load of individual spot is finite, the erosion of cathode
2700
surface is relative lower. However, the anode is heated
2400 and melted due to large heat flux density to anode
2100 from arc column. As current increases, the constriction
1800
of arc column leads to the more constricted radial
1500 B
T/K

A
1200 distribution of heat flux density to anode, so the
900 difference of anode appearance between center melted
600 region and unmelted region at edge is large.
300
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
t / ms
Fig. 2. Temporal variation of temperature at the center of anode
surface
t=1ms
2800 t=2ms
t=3ms
t=4ms
2400 t=5ms
t=6ms
2000 t=7ms
t=8ms
t=9ms
1600
T/K

t=10ms

1200
800
400
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
r / mm
Fig. 3. Radial distributions of temperature at the anode surface at
different moments
0.45
14
0.40
12 0.35
10 0.30
8 0.25
d / mm
r / mm

0.20
6
0.15
4
0.10 Fig. 5 Appearance of electrodes after experiments at different
2 0.05 currents
0 0.00
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
t / ms
Fig. 4 Variation of melting width and max melting depth with time

III. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF ANODE

ACTIVITIES

The basic features of anode activities of cup-shaped

AMF electrodes made of copper have been
investigated experimentally at different arc currents
from 5kA to 17.5kA (rms) with an increase of 2.5kA at
fixed gap distance of 10mm. The typical results are
given in the following.
A. Anode erosion
The appearances of contact plates after experiments
of 12.5, 15, and 17.5 kA (rms) are shown in Fig. 5.
The cathode is eroded slightly but no erosion trace can
be found on the anode after the 10kA interruption. As Fig. 6 Transition of arc column from high current diffuse mode to
arc current increases, the melting area enlarges and the diffuse column mode at the peak of different arc current

314
 It’s believed that the appearance of anode melting is
likely to correlate to the transition of arc mode from
high-current diffuse mode to high-current diffuse
column mode. As can be seen in Fig. 6, the arc begins
to transit to the high current diffuse column mode
when the arc current is between 10kA and 12.5kA, and
the contact plates also begin to melt at this moment.
With the increase of arc current, the constriction of arc
column aggravates and the arc column goes to the
high-current diffuse column mode further. Meanwhile,
the melting of contact plates also aggravates.
In the experiments, the melted anode material is lost
mainly in form of liquid droplets and no obvious
anode plasma jets can be found. After the experiments,
the longitudinal section of anode can be seen in Fig. 7.
The mass loss at anode center is huge and decreases
outward. A lot of liquid copper at the center of anode
contact is pressed into the cup of electrode, as shown
in Fig. 8, which is due to large plasma pressure in arc
column near the anode. As the anode was at upper
position in experiments, it also indicates that the anode
plasma if exists can hardly enter the arc column due to
this large plasma pressure.
Fig. 7 Longitudinal section of the anode along the radial direction
Fig. 8 Photo of melted copper inside the cup of anode
B. Swirl flow of liquid copper on anode surface
Another interesting phenomenon was also detected
in the experiments. An obvious clockwise swirl flow
of liquid copper was observed on anode surface when
it was melted at 12.5 kA (rms), as shown in Fig. 9. The
liquid copper flowed clockwise on anode surface and
some liquid droplets sputtered out of the gap because
of the inertial centrifugal force.
the cause of the anode swirl flow.
Fig. 10 Illustration of Lorentz force jr×Bz in the anode contact plate
Fig. 11 Illustration of Lorentz force jz×Br in the anode liquid pool
The other is the impact force given by ions coming
from cathode jets on the anode liquid pool. Obviously
inclined cathode jets have been found in our previous
work [3], as shown in Fig. 12. One could see that the
cathode jets in the front half-surface before the white
line incline rightward and the jets in the back
half-surface inclined leftward. Once these jets arrive at
anode surface, the impact force given by ions coming
from these jets on the anode liquid pool may lead to
the swirl flow. Meanwhile, the inclination of cathode
jets is attributed to the inclination of magnetic field
vector. Hence, the inclination of magnetic field vector
which represents the inclination of cathode jets in
nature in the case shown in Fig. 9 is illustrated
sketchily in Fig. 13. Once the heavy ions coming from
the cathode jets attain the anode surface, especially the
liquid melting pool indicated in the ellipse in Fig. 13,
the action of kinetic ions into the melting pool gives
the melted metal a horizontal force shown in Fig. 13 as
vector 1 and 3. These horizontal forces given by ions
from the cathode jets lead to a clockwise swirl flow in
the anode melting pool once they arrive at anode
surface, which is consistent with the experimental
observation shown in Fig. 9. The quantitative
calculation also indicates the kinetic energy of ions’
horizontal motion is much larger than the kinetic
energy of the swirling liquid metal to generate the
anode swirl flow [4]. Hence the formation of anode
swirl flow can be explained in this way.

Fig. 9 Clockwise swirl flow on anode surface at 12.5kA (rms)

There are two possible reasons leading to the anode
swirl flow. The one is the electromagnetic force j×B in
anode melting pool, both jz×Br and jr×Bz can generate
a azimuthal force. The directions of Lorentz force
jr×Bz in the anode contact plate and jz×Br in the
melting pool are shown in Fig. 10 and Fig. 11
respectively, both of them generate an anticlockwise
swirl flow in the anode melting pool which is reverse
to the experimental result. Hence, it is concluded that Fig. 12 Inclined cathode jets in arc column
the above mentioned two Lorentz forces could not be

315

Fig. 13 Illustration of interaction between inclined cathode jets and
anode surface, especially the melting pool indicated in the ellipse
Subsequent experiments indicated that the AMF has
great influence on the anode swirl flow. Once the AMF
direction in arc column reversed, the anode swirl flow
of liquid metal also reversed [5], which can be seen in
Fig. 14. This verified that Bz has great influence on the
swirl flow, so jz×Br can be excluded as the main
reason experimentally. However, it is still difficult to
confirm the main reason between Lorentz force jr×Bz
and the impact force of cathode jets. If the AMF
reversed, the direction of jr×Bz reversed at a constant
direction of jr, meanwhile, the inclination direction of
cathode jets also changed, as shown in Fig. 15, finally
the horizontal force direction also reversed.
Subsequent study is needed to varify the mechanism of
anode swirl flow.
Fig. 14 Anticlockwise swirl flow on anode surface at 12.5kA (rms)
once the AMF in arc column reversed
Fig. 15 Illustration of the inclination of composite magnetic field at
different AMF directions
The special designed plate electrodes and
cup-shaped plate electrodes shown in Fig. 16 were
used. The main difference is that the directions of jr in
the two kinds of electrodes are opposite. At the same
AMF, the swirl flow directions should be opposite on
anode of these two kinds of electrodes if the jr×Bz is
the main reason.
When the plate electrodes were used and an external
AMF of 46.5mT pointed from anode to cathode was
applied, a clockwise swirl flow was found in Fig.
17(a). However, if the external AMF reversed and
pointed from cathode to anode, the rotation direction
reversed and an anticlockwise swirl flow shown in Fig.
17(b) was found. When the cup-shaped plate
electrodes were used and an external AMF of 46.5mT
pointed from anode to cathode was applied, a
316
clockwise swirl flow was found in Fig. 18(a). Once the
external AMF direction reversed and pointed from
cathode to anode, the anode swirl flow direction
reversed and flowed anticlockwise, which can be seen
in Fig. 18(b). These indicate the swirl flow direction is
independent of the direction of jr and the Lorentz force
jr×Bz is not the main reason.
Fig. 16 Appearance and current flow direction of (a) plate electrode
and (b) cup-shaped plate electrode
Fig. 17 (a) Clockwise swirl flow on anode surface of the plate
electrodes at AMF of 46.5mT; (b) Anticlockwise swirl flow on
anode surface of the cup-shaped plate electrodes at AMF of 46.5mT
Fig. 18 (a) Clockwise swirl flow on anode surface of the cup-shaped
plate electrodes at AMF of 46.5mT; (b) Anticlockwise swirl flow on
anode surface of the cup-shaped plate electrodes at AMF of 46.5mT
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, the anode thermal process was
simulated and the temporal and spatial distributions of
typical parameters such as anode temperature were
obtained. The basic features of anode erosion were
investigated experimentally and a clockwise swirl flow
of the liquid metal was found on anode surface. Both
the theoretical analysis and experimental results show
that it is not the electromagnetic force but the
interaction between ions from the inclined cathode jets
and the anode melting pool that leads to the swirl flow.
REFERENCES
[1] LJ Wang, SL Jia, ZQ Shi, et al. “Numerical simulation of vacuum
arc under different axial magnetic fields,” J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.,
2005, 38(7): 1034-1041.
[2] LJ Wang, SL Jia, DG Yang, et al, “Modelling and simulation of
anode activity in high-current vacuum arc,” J. Phys. D: Appl.
Phys., 2009, 42(14): 145203.
[3] SL Jia, DG Yang, XT Huo, et al. “Investigation on the inclination
of cathode plasma jets in high-current vacuum arcs in magnetic
field,” IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci., 2010, 38(10): 2914-2921.
[4] SL Jia, DG Yang, LJ Wang, et al. “Investigation of the swirl flow
on anode surface in high-current vacuum arcs,” J. Appl. Phys.,
2012, 111(4): 043301.
[5] DG Yang, SL Jia, Y Liu, et al. “Influence of Axial Magnetic Field
on the Anode Liquid Swirl Flow in High-Current Vacuum Arcs,”
IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci., 2011, 39(11):2868-2869.
E-mail of the author: sljia@mail.xjtu.edu.cn