 ABB Switchgear AB: 2000 3-1

3 Circuit-breaker design

3.1 Interrupting modes

When a circuit-breaker is tripped to interrupt a short-circuit current, the contact parting can take
place anywhere in the current loop. The current will then flow between the contacts through an arc,
which consists of a core of extremely hot gas with a temperature of 10 000 to 20 000 K. This
column of gas is fully ionized (plasma) and has an electrical conductivity comparable to that of
carbon.

To interrupt the current, the circuit-breaker has to wait for a current zero. When the current
approaches zero the arc diameter will decrease. The cross section is approximately proportional to
the current. When the current reaches zero, the arc has decreased to a tiny filament or thread of
ionized gas. The natural current zero is used to attack the arc region by rapidly taking away the
ionized particles and cooling the arc region.

The current interruption process is a complex matter due to simultaneous interaction of several
phenomena. Based on the nature of the dominant phenomena, two distinct regimes can be
identified in the interruption process: the thermal and the dielectric regime. These regimes are
slightly separated in time (see Figure 3-1). The choice of an extinguishing medium and the circuit-
breaker characteristics are dependent on the behavior of this medium in the two regimes.

Figure 3-1 - Stresses on a circuit-breaker at interruption

3.1.1 Thermal regime

At current zero the hot arc channel between the circuit-breaker contacts has to be rapidly cooled
down to such a low temperature that it is no longer electrically conducting. The difficulty to interrupt
is related to the rate of decrease of the current towards zero, di/dt and to the rate of rise of the
recovery voltage after current zero, du/dt.

There exists a certain inertia between the current and electrical conductivity of the arc (see Figure
3-2). When the current approaches zero, there is still a certain amount of electrical conductivity left
in the arc path. This gives rise to what is called a "post-arc current". The fact, whether or not the
interruption is going to be successful is determined by a race between the cooling and the energy
input in the arc path by the transient recovery voltage. When the scales of the energy balance tip
over in favor of the energy input, the breaker fails thermally. Thermal failures typically occur less
than 20 µs following current zero.

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Figure 3-2 - Stresses on a circuit-breaker at interruption (times are in the microsecond range)

The decisive regime for current interruption is the thermal region, where the interaction between the
arc and the network is of paramount importance.

The thermal regime is especially critical for short-line fault interruption (see 2.3). The circuit
parameters directly affecting this regime are the slope of the current to be interrupted (di/dt) and the
initial rate of rise of the transient recovery voltage immediately after current zero (du/dt). The higher
the values of any of these two parameters, the more severe the interruption.

The thermal interruption regime for SF 6 circuit-breakers corresponds to the period of time starting
some µs before current zero up to the vanishing post-arc current (2 - 4 µs after current zero).

3.1.2 Dielectric regime

After having passed the thermal region, the voltage rises relatively fast at the circuit-breaker
terminals and the success of the interruption is now depending on the voltage withstand capability
of the contact gap.

In the dielectric regime, located some hundreds of microseconds after current zero, the circuit-
breaker has to withstand the full peak value of the TRV without dielectric breakdown.

In the dielectric regime the extinguishing/isolating medium is not electrically conducting anymore,
but it still has a much higher temperature than the ambient. This reduces the voltage withstand
capacity of the contact gap.

The cases with short-circuit currents close to the circuit-breaker (terminal faults) as dealt with in
section 2.2 mainly give TRV's with relatively low rates of rise after current zero. The predominant
stress on the circuit-breaker will thus be caused by the TRV peak (a stress in the dielectric region).

An SF 6 breaker decides whether it is going to interrupt within the first few µs after current zero.
Even if the thermal interrupting capability is sufficient there is no guarantee that the interruption will
be successful. At current zero the circuit-breaker attempts to interrupt. When this attempt is
successful, (no thermal failure), the transient recovery voltage across the contacts rises rapidly and
to very high values when the breaking unit is well utilized. For example in a single unit 245 kV
circuit-breaker the contact gap may be stressed by 400 kV or more 70 to 200 µs after the current
zero.

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Figure 3-3 - Dielectric interruption mode

The recovery of the voltage withstand of the contact gap must always be higher than the recovery
voltage, see Figure 3-3, otherwise a dielectric reignition will occur (dielectric failure). This requires
an extremely good dielectric withstand of the gas, that is still rather hot (and thin)

3.2 Interruption of short-circuit currents

The interruption of short-circuit currents is usually the most critical duty and therefore determines
the design of the circuit-breaker.

As described in 3.1, the plasma is fully ionized and has an electrical conductivity comparable to that
of graphite. This is illustrated in Figure 3-1.

Figure 3-4 - Electrical conductivity of most gases as a function of temperature

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As long as the current is high, the arc will have negligible influence on the current flow. An arc
voltage of only some hundred volts may exist. Blowing onto the arc to cool it at this stage, will only
result in a slight increase in arc voltage to compensate for the increased losses by the cooling.

As described in 3.1, the circuit-breaker has to wait for a current zero to interrupt. At the very
moment of current zero no energy is fed into the arc. Would the arc react instantaneously to the
current, it would disappear and the current would then be interrupted. However, the arc has a time
constant, that depends on how much heat is stored in the arc and how quickly this heat can be
removed by cooling. This means that at current zero the arc still has a certain conductance and that
the network can inject more energy into the arc after current zero (see also 3.1.1). A successful
interruption requires that the cooling is so efficient relative to the energy input after current zero
that the temperature drops quickly.

Figure 3-4 shows that cooling a gas from 5 000 K to 1 500 K decreases the conductivity by 12
orders of magnitude. The gas is transformed from a conductor comparable to graphite to an
insulator comparable to porcelain.

3.3 Characteristics of extinguishing media

The arc can be cooled by various processes, e.g. radiation, thermal conduction, convection and
turbulent mixing of cold gas into the arc. Radiation is dominant at high currents and temperatures,
whereas turbulent mixing is generally considered the most important cooling mechanism at current
zero. Different extinguishing media have different properties in this respect. As an example Figure
3-4 shows the thermal conductivity of the most interesting media for circuit-breakers:

- N 2 , nitrogen, which is the main constituent of the gas in air-blast circuit-breakers;

- H 2 , hydrogen, dominating in the gas bubble in which the arc is burning in oil circuit-breakers;
- SF 6 , sulfur-hexafluoride, in SF 6 circuit-breakers.

(vacuum circuit-breakers, where the extinction mechanism is different from those given above, are
not considered in this document)

The three types of circuit-breakers stated above do not cover the whole range of circuit-breakers.
There are circuit-breakers that use different extinguishing principles:

- air magnetic circuit-breakers, where the arc is stretched by the magnetic forces. Cooling of the
arc is by the surrounding air;
- vacuum circuit-breaker;
- fuses may be considered as well, since their task is to interrupt short-circuit currents.

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Figure 3-5 - Thermal conductivity of H 2 , N 2 and SF 6 as function of temperature

It would seem favorable to use a gas that has a high thermal conductivity in the temperature range
where the transition from conductor to insulator takes place.

Nitrogen has a high thermal conductivity but at too high a temperature to be effective. This would
explain the inferior capability of air-blast circuit-breakers to cope with short-line-faults.

Hydrogen has a high thermal conductivity in the region of interest. This would explain the very good
short-line fault capability of oil circuit-breakers.

SF 6 has a couple of peaks in the conductivity curve in the temperature interval where the gas is
transformed to an insulator. This would explain the good short-line performance.

However, a closer analysis indicates that thermal conduction is insufficient for the extinction of the
arc. In this case, the specific heat vs. temperature is important and it is indirectly related to the
thermal conductivity (Figure 3-5) in the following way:

The peaks in Figure 3-5 appear at temperatures where the dissociation of the gas molecules
consumes a lot of energy, which means that the specific heat should be high too. It is an advantage
if this happens already at a low temperature, since this promotes a low final temperature and a low
electrical conductivity (Figure 3-4).

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A simplified explanation of the good extinguishing properties of SF 6 is given below.

Figure 3-6 - The SF 6 molecule

The SF 6 molecule consists of six Fluorine (F) atoms bound to a central Sulfur (S) atom. The SF 6
molecule has the shape of an octahedron, with the F atoms located at the corners (see Figure 3-6).
These 6 bindings are equal, which explains the high stability of this gas. Below 800 K, the SF 6
molecule is stable. Above this temperature the SF 6 molecule starts to dissociate, i.e. F atoms are
knocked away leaving smaller and smaller molecular fragments the higher the temperature.

This process is reversible, i.e. the atoms recombine to form SF 6 molecules when the temperature is
decreased. This dissociation requires energy and this energy is returned when the atoms recombine
when the temperature is lower.

Consider now a hot arc column along which a cold SF 6 stream is blown (Figure 3-7). Some
turbulence in the boundary between the hot and cold gas may cause some cold SF 6 molecules to
mix with the hot gas. If the temperature in the arc column is high, the cold molecules will be
dissociated. This means consumption of a lot of energy and hence effective cooling of the hot gas.

Figure 3-7 - Circuit-breaker arc in axial blast nozzle

This process is very efficient. A numerical example may illustrate this: When mixing 1.0 liter of hot
SF 6 gas with a temperature of 10 000 K with 0,01 liter of cold SF 6 gas at a temperature of 1 000 K
at the same pressure, the temperature of the mixture will be 3 000 K. See Figure 3-8. (For an ideal
gas the resulting temperature would have been > 9 000 K)

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Figure 3-8 - Cooling effect of SF 6 gas

This model explains why the dissociation temperatures (that appear as peaks in the thermal
conductivity curve of Figure 3-5) should be in the lower end of the temperature range of transition
from conductor to insulator for maximum performance.

Therefore the excellent dielectric characteristic of the SF 6 gas (depending on the electronegative
properties) is a very important feature. The electronegative properties can be explained by the fact
that the Fluorine atoms miss an electron in the outer shell which means that free electrons are
effectively captured by the Fluorine atoms, thus forming negative ions.

The dielectric withstand of cold SF 6 at a pressure of 0,3 MPa (abs) is comparable to transformer oil.
See Figure 3-9.

In an oil circuit-breaker Hydrogen (H 2 ) is the main constituent of the gaseous products that are
formed when the arc interacts with the oil. H 2 does not have good dielectric properties. This is
however compensated by the very high pressure in the contact region after arc extinction. A
pressure of 10 MPa or more at rated breaking current is not unusual.

In an air-blast circuit-breaker the pressure is also rather high, 2 to 3 MPa.

Figure 3-9 - Breakdown as a function of pressure

Air, SF 6 and transformer oil

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3.4 Circuit-breaker design

The choice of extinguishing medium is very important, but the cooling of the arc also requires an
efficient blowing of the gas onto the arc.

3.4.1 Live tank and dead tank design

There are two main categories of circuit-breaker designs, one in which the enclosure for the
contacts and extinguishing medium is metallic and earthed, and the other in which the enclosure
containing the contacts and extinguishing medium is insulated from earth (at the high voltage
potential or "live"). The first category is called a dead tank circuit-breaker and the latter is called a
live tank circuit-breaker (see also Figure 3-10).

Figure 3-10 - (a) Live tank and (b) dead tank design

As both designs use the same interrupting principles, the considerations given below are valid for
both designs.

3.4.2 Air-blast circuit-breaker

In an air-blast circuit-breaker, an intense blast is achieved by letting the air stream from a high
pressure tank out in the free air. Simultaneously with the opening of the contacts one (or more)
valve is opened to start the air flow. To get optimal cooling, the gas is forced to flow through a
nozzle. A nozzle is a device of which the cross section first decreases and later increases (see
Figure 3-7). The smallest cross section is called the throat. The maximum mass flow through a
nozzle is dependent on amongst others the speed of sound of the gas and the cross section of the
throat. The maximum mass flow will result in a maximum cooling effect. Normally the design of the
circuit-breaker is such that the arc is burning along the axis of the nozzle. The arc will therefore be
stabilized along the axis and effectively cooled by the cold air flow along it. Figure 3-11 shows
several principal arrangements of nozzles. The air flow can be in one direction - single flow - or in
two directions - double flow. The double flow type is mostly used since it gives almost twice the
interrupting capacity.

After some 30 to 40 ms, the airflow is shut off by valves, to economize the high pressure air.

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Figure 3-11 - Nozzle arrangements for air-blast circuit-breakers

3.4.3 Oil circuit-breaker

The principle of the oil circuit-breaker is relatively simple as shown in Figure 3-12. This shows one
of the first types of oil circuit-breakers that was manufactured, the bulk oil circuit-breaker.

An oil circuit-breaker basically consists of two contacts that separate in oil. The intense heat of the
arc that is drawn between the contacts while opening causes the oil to disintegrate mainly into
hydrogen gas. The hydrogen is used as a cooling medium.

In the case of a bulk oil circuit-breaker, the oil is used both for interruption and also as insulation
medium (between the contacts, the phases and to the earthed tank).

Figure 3-12 - Bulk oil circuit-breaker

Most modern oil circuit-breakers are of the so called minimum-oil type. These circuit-breakers use,
compared to the bulk oil circuit-breaker, only a fraction of the oil by using the live tank design. The
contacts in these types of circuit-breakers are separated in so called extinguishing chambers, high
pressure resistant cylindrical constructions of insulating material. These extinguishing chambers are
used to increase the pressure in the contact region and to achieve a more intensive contact
between the expanding gas and the arc (see Figure 3-13).

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Figure 3-13 - Simple extinguishing chamber

Modern extinguishing chambers consist of a number of these chambers in series. When the high
pressure (up to 20 MPa) can escape in a symmetrical way, this is called an axial blast extinguishing
chamber (Figure 3-14 a). Asymmetrical designs with a single expansion opening are called
transversal or cross-blast extinguishing chambers, illustrated by Figure 3-14 b. In the cross-blast
extinguishing chamber the escaping gas drives the arc into the expansion openings that are
uncovered one by one as the contact moves towards the open position.

Figure 3-14 - Basic designs of extinguishing chambers

a) axial blast extinguishing principle
b) cross-blast extinguishing principle

Because the cooling only takes place along the circumference of the arc, the cross-blast causes
mainly an axial cooling (see Figure 3-14).In some circuit-breakers both principles are combined.
The blast pressure may amount to 10 MPa or more, which together with the thermal properties of
hydrogen explains the extremely good thermal interrupting properties of oil circuit-breakers.

It is mainly the ability to withstand the TRV peak that sets the limit of the minimum-oil circuit-
breaker.

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The interrupting capability expressed in MVA (breaking current times recovery voltage) is usually
fairly constant over a considerable range. A modern minimum-oil circuit-breaker may thus have an
interrupting capacity of 8 000 MVA with one unit per phase. This means that the interrupting
capacity at 145 kV is 31,5 kA and 37,5 kA at 123 kV.

As the blast energy is taken from the arc, it takes some time to build up the blast pressure.
Therefore, a break time of 45 to 50 ms is a practical minimum (2,5 cycles at 50 Hz or 3 cycles at 60
Hz is usually stated). This interrupting principle has the advantage that the operating energy
required is small and more or less independent of the breaking currents. Most of the energy is in
fact used at closing of the circuit-breaker.

The lifetime of the arcing contacts is 6-8 operations at rated breaking current. Not only the contacts
will be affected by the arc but also the interrupting medium, oil. The oil will get carbonized and will
also set the limit for maintenance periods. This is especially valid for circuit-breakers with frequent
operation at low currents.

However, it should be noted that the oil blackens even after a few operations. This does not mean
that it has to be changed. Only after chemical analysis (acidity, water etc.) and dielectric testing
indicating bad quality, should the oil be filtered or changed.

3.4.4 SF 6 circuit-breakers

3.4.4.1 SF 6 -two pressure circuit-breakers

The first SF 6 circuit-breakers in use were in principle air-blast circuit-breakers converted to work
with SF 6 . But instead of letting the gas out in free air (costly, environmental problems) the circuit-
breakers were encapsulated and the exhaust gas was collected and compressed in the high
pressure SF 6 reservoir again. Due to the liquefaction of high pressure SF 6 gas at low temperatures,
it was necessary to heat the high pressure reservoir. In spite of this, condensed SF 6 has caused
problems by contaminating insulators.

3.4.4.2 SF 6 puffer circuit-breakers

In the SF 6 puffer, the gas pressure for the cooling blast is created during the opening stroke in a
compression cylinder. The piston of the compression cylinder is connected to the moving contact,
so that the gas is compressed at the same time as the contacts are opened. The compressed gas is
blown out through an insulating nozzle in which the arc is burning. Figure 3-15 shows the function
of a dual blast puffer, which is the most commonly used design. The insulating nozzle is made of
PTFE or PolyTetraFluorEthene.

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Figure 3-15 - Function of a single blast puffer

One important feature of the puffer design is the current dependent build-up of extinguishing
pressure. At a no-load operation (without arc) the maximum pressure in the puffer cylinder is
typically twice the filling pressure. See the no-load curve in Figure 3-16.

A heavy arc burning between the contacts blocks flow of the gas through the nozzle. When the
current decreases towards zero, the arc diameter also decreases, letting more and more outlet area
free. A full gas flow is thus established at the current zero resulting in maximum cooling when
needed. The blocking of the nozzle (nozzle clogging) during the high current interval, gives a further
pressure build-up in the puffer cylinder that may be several times the maximum no-load pressure
(see Figure 3-16).

In other words: the decreasing puffer volume, nozzle clogging and heating of the gas by the arc
interact to create a high pressure.

The high pressure in the puffer requires a high operating force to prevent stopping or even reversal
of the contact movement. The blast energy is therefore mainly delivered by the operating
mechanism.

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Figure 3-16 - Pressure in the puffer volume at no-load operation and during interruption of an
asymmetrical short-circuit current of 40 kA

To extinguish the arc a certain blast pressure is required. It is determined by the rate-of-change of
current at current zero (di/dt) and the rate of rise of the recovery voltage immediately after current
zero (du/dt). A high value of di/dt results in a hot arc with a large amount of stored energy at current
zero, which makes interruption more difficult. High values of du/dt will result in an increase of the
energy to the post arc current. The following expression gives an idea of the relative importance of
the stresses:

1
æ di ö æ du ö m a
ç ÷⋅ç ÷ = k ⋅ p
è dt ø è dt ø
Where: m is in the range 2,5 to 4;
α is a constant with a value ≈ 0,5;
p is the gas pressure in the puffer (MPa).

The curve showing the thermal interrupting capability of a particular design of SF 6 circuit-breaker is
given in Figure 3-17. This curve shows the maximum combination of current derivative and voltage
rise that can be interrupted successfully by this circuit-breaker. The most severe thermal stress
occurs when the circuit-breaker has to interrupt a short-line-fault (SLF). Then

du di
= Ze ⋅
dt dt

where Z e is the equivalent surge impedance of the line.

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The stress subjected to the circuit-breaker during an IEC-type test with Z e = 450 Ω can be
represented by a straight line in Figure 3-17. The intersection with the capability curve then gives
the maximum current derivative (or 50 Hz breaking current) that is possible to interrupt with the
actual design.

In this way each puffer circuit-breaker has a rather well defined current limit. Note that the rated
voltage has no influence on this.

A circuit-breaker with two series connected breaks will have a higher current limit, since the voltage
stress is then shared by the two breaks. Three units will give a still higher limit, etc.

Figure 3-17 - Typical capability of an SF 6 puffer circuit-breaker

Besides the current limit there also exists a voltage limit. This limit is independent of the breaking
current at low currents. During the dielectric recovery, the gas between the contacts is still
considerably heated, as a result of the heating by the arc an instant earlier. The increased gas
temperature strongly affects the dielectric withstand capability of the gas, mainly by the decrease in
density. See Figure 3-18. In addition the gas is also slightly ionized in the upper temperature range,
too little to conduct any current, but enough to distort the electrical field between the contacts as
compared to that in a cold gas. The voltage distribution during dielectric recovery is therefore
difficult to treat analytically.

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Figure 3-18 - Breakdown voltage, hot SF 6 . Pressure 0,2 MPa (abs)

Figure 3-19 gives an example of the influence of the number of series connected breaking units on
the circuit-breaker interrupting capacity. The horizontal lines give the dielectric limit of the number
of series connected breaking units and the vertical lines give the thermal limit of the series
connected breaking units.

The decreasing part towards the end of the horizontal line is caused by the effect of the reduction in
dielectric withstand due to an increasing amount of hot gas.

Figure 3-19 - Principal performance curves of SF 6 puffer circuit-breakers

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3.4.4.3 SF 6 self-blast circuit-breakers

Service experience has shown that circuit-breaker failures due to insufficient interrupting capacity
are rare. The majority of the failures reported are of a mechanical nature. That is why there is a
drive to improve the overall reliability of the operating mechanisms. Because of the fact that puffer
circuit-breakers require a lot of operating energy, manufacturers were forced to use pneumatic or
hydraulic mechanisms, and the spring mechanisms used have been exposed to high mechanical
stresses. For this reason, the move towards a reduction of the energy requirement of the operating
mechanisms has been one of the main targets of recent development.

In a normal puffer circuit-breaker a small part of the pressure rise is caused by heating of the gas
through the arc. The ideal situation would be to let the arc produce the blast pressure in the same
way as in a minimum-oil circuit-breaker. In this way the operating mechanism only needs to deliver
energy necessary for the movement of the contact.

This ideal situation can, however, not be reached at the moment. Problems will arise when
interrupting small currents, since there is only a limited amount of energy accessible for the
pressure rise. For this reason a compromise has been reached: a self blast circuit-breaker with pre-
compression.

Because the blast pressure required for interruption of small currents/current derivatives (see
3.4.4.2) is moderate, a small pressure rise independent of the current is sufficient. For higher
currents, the energy producing the blast pressure is taken from the arc through heating of the gas.
By using suitable check valves, the braking of the movement of the contact system can be
prevented.

Figure 3-20 shows the working principle of such a high voltage circuit-breaker.

Figure 3-20 – Self-blast SF 6 circuit-breaker with pre-compression

When interrupting small currents (up to some kA), the circuit-breaker operates as a pure puffer
circuit-breaker: gas is compressed in the auxiliary puffer cylinder V 2 and flows through volume V 1
and the nozzle. In the case of a short-circuit current, the pressure rise necessary for the
extinguishing of the arc is built up in the self-blast volume V 1 , through heating by the arc. A check
valve between the volumes V 1 and V 2 prevents the high pressure to escape to the auxiliary puffer.

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The pressure in V 2 is relatively independent of the current. It is limited to a moderate level by

means of a spring loaded valve (overpressure valve), which means that the compression energy
required from the operating mechanism is limited. Figure 3-21 shows how the energy from the
operating mechanism is used.

Compared with a conventional puffer circuit-breaker of the same rating, the energy requirements of
the operating mechanism can be reduced to 30 %.

Figure 3-21 - Utilization of operating energy at a breaking operation

Even circuit-breakers with rotating arcs, treated in the next section, are often self-blast circuit-
breakers. Current development is directed towards a further reduction of the energy requirements
from the operating mechanism, but it is doubtful whether the pre-compression can be totally omitted
for high voltage circuit-breakers with their high TRV requirements. For medium voltage there is
more potential, due to the lower requirements for the voltage derivative after current zero.

3.4.4.4 SF 6 circuit-breakers with rotating arcs

Instead of blowing on a stationary arc, one can think of obtaining cooling by moving the arc through
a stationary gas. This can be done by means of a magnetic field.

Maxwell's equation F = I x B says that a force is applied to a current that flows perpendicular to a
magnetic field. By an arrangement as shown in Figure 3-22 it is possible to obtain a rotation of an
arc between two contacts. The magnetic field is produced by letting the short-circuit current pass
through a magnet. The speed of the arc can be 100 m/s or higher depending on current and
magnetic field. When the current reaches its zero crossing, the speed decreases and at current
zero the speed is zero. Expressing the speed in the number of arc diameters per unit of time will
result in a limit value that is not zero. This in combination with the instability of low current arcs and
thinning of the gas along the axis due to centrifugal force, can possibly explain why this interrupting
principle is working only in the medium voltage range (at the moment).

In order to obtain a better and safer interrupting capacity, it is possible to combine arc rotation with
self blast function, possibly with pre-compression in an auxiliary puffer. Arc rotation is
advantageous for a self blast circuit-breaker, since it gives a homogenous heating of the gas.
Otherwise there is a risk that the arc creates local "hot spots", that de-ionize slowly and can lead to
voltage breakdown at the peak of the TRV.

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Besides the very low operating energy requirement, a further advantage of arc rotation is that
contact wear is reduced because of the fact that the foot point of the arc is forced to move. A
principle of a combined rotating arc/self blast circuit-breaker is given in Figure 3-23.

Figure 3-22 - Principle of rotating arc Figure 3-23 - Circuit-breaker with rotating arc and
self blast function

3.4.5 Vacuum circuit-breakers

The heart of the vacuum circuit-breaker is the vacuum "bottle". This is an evacuated absolute
vacuum-tight container made of ceramic and metal parts fused together in permanent seals. See
Figure 3-24.

The bottle contains two "butt" contacts which carry the current. One of the contacts is movable in
axial direction. To secure the vacuum it is welded to a metal bellows (any type of gasket would not
be sufficiently tight).

Figure 3-24 - Vacuum-bottle

1 Flexible metallic bellows 4 Fixed contact

2 Moveable contact 5 Tubular metal shield
3 Insulating vacuum envelope

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When the contacts open an arc is drawn in the metal vapor from the contacts (usually a copper
alloy, e.g. CuCr or CuBi).

When the current goes to zero no new metal vapor is produced for a short moment. The "old" vapor
is quickly absorbed by the surfaces (each atom will hit a surface within a few µs and stick to it),
hence no arc can exist.

This rapid process gives the vacuum circuit-breaker a very good breaking capacity, in fact
sometimes too good, as mentioned in 2.7.

To prevent the arc roots to produce too much metal vapor they are kept moving by designing the
contacts so as to produce a transversal magnetic field close to the surface by forcing the current to
have a component parallel to the surface. See Figure 3-25.

Figure 3-25 - Two different contact shapes in vacuum circuit-breakers

Vacuum circuit-breakers are mostly used in the medium voltage range up to 36 kV. But designs up
to 84 kV in one bottle exist and up to 145 kV with two bottles in series. The high voltage types are
very expensive and therefore they cannot compete with e.g. SF 6 .
Besides the good breaking capability the most important feature is the electrical endurance. Up to
100 full short-circuit current interruptions are claimed possible without exchanging the bottles.

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