Experimental Study on Arc Breaking Characteristics of DC Contactor With Different Media

As one of the key components of new energy vehicles, dc contactors have received extensive attention. Based on the dc contactor arc breaking experimental platform, the dc breaking experiments in hydrogen, nitrogen, air, and argon gas at different current levels are carried out, respectively. The experimental results show that the arc-extinguishing performance in hydrogen is the best and that in argon gas is the worst. It is found that the arc moves the fastest between the contacts when the hydrogen–nitrogen mixing ratio is 3:2. Breaking experiments are carried out in hydrogen and argon medium at 1–3 atm. The experimental results show that although the high-pressure environment helps to shorten the arcing time, it will make the arc burning more concentrated, which is not conducive to the arc heat dissipation. Concerning the effect of magnetic field strength on the arcing characteristics of air arcs, the experimental results show that the stronger the transverse magnetic field is, the faster the arc moves, and the smaller the arcing energy is. The influence of the reverse magnetic field on the motion of the gas arc is studied, and it is found that the arc in the nitrogen environment is more susceptible to the reverse magnetic field than in the hydrogen environment. The experimental results show that the retrograde motion of the vacuum arc cathode spots is more obvious under the condition of low current and strong transverse magnetic field.