Dynamic test and analysis of shield potential in vacuum interrupters

This paper studies the arcing and post-arcing medium-intensity recovery of vacuum arcs during short-circuit breaking of a vacuum interrupter by measuring the dynamic change waveforms of the relationship between shield potential, arc voltage and recovery voltage. On the basis of the experimental results, it makes mathematical derivation for the relationship between the vacuum interrupter shield potential and the voltage in contact gap. It also makes a theoretical analysis of changing regularity of the shield potential. It is proven that this method is feasible for deeper study of vacuum interrupter performance.