93 / 2024-04-11 21:08:40

Chopping Current Characteristics of Graphene Copper-Chromium Based Composite Contact Material in a Vacuum Interrupter

GR/Cu composite materials,chopping current,vacuum interrupters,arcing time,opening velocity

Current chopping phenomenon, in small inductive or capacitive load current switching, leads to an over-voltage imposed on other power equipment, which significantly risks the safety and stability of a power system. From the state-of-art, researches on physical and chemical properties of the graphene reinforced copper matrix composite material (GR/Cu composite materials) has been relatively complete, but little study focuses on its chopping current charactieristics when it is employed in vacuum interrupters. The objective of the study is to experimentally explore the chopping current characteristics of the GR/Cu60Cr40 contact. Couples of GR/Cu60Cr40 contacts, with a diameter of 60 mm, are used in the experiment. The test contact is mounted in a commercial 24 kV vacuum interrupter. The GR component of the test contacts is set to be 0 wt%, 1 wt%, and 3 wt%, respectively. In addition, different kinds of potential impact factors, like test current, arcing time, and opening velocity, are explored. The test current rises up from 200 A to 1000 A, stepped by 200 A. The opening velocity ranges from 1.8 m/s to 2.4 m/s. The arcing time ranges from 1.0 ms to 9.0 ms, stepped up by 2 ms.

Details of test results and discussions will be presented in a full paper version.