Abstract
THE recovery of the voltage breakdown strength of a gap subsequent to an arc discharge is of basic interest in the performance of circuit breakers. Experiments using the simplified condition of ‘free recovery’ (that is, no voltage is applied to the gap until the instant of measuring its breakdown strength) have been performed by Edels and Ettinger1 during times 10–100 µsec. after current interruption, and by Crawford and Edels2 for longer delay times. During the early stages of recovery the gap still has a finite resistance, and ‘thermal breakdown’ occurs on applying a suitable constant voltage, but at longer delay times the breakdown mechanism is that of a spark.
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References
Edels, H., and Ettinger, S. Y., Proc. Inst. Elec. Eng., 108, A (1961).
Crawford, F. W., and Edels, H., Proc. Inst. Elec. Eng., 107, A, 202 (1960).
Edels, H., Shaw, A. B., and Whittaker, D., Fifth Intern. Conf. Ionization Phenomena in Gases (Munich, 1961).
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EDELS, H., HALDER, A., SHAW, A. et al. Convection-free Post-arc Gap Recovery. Nature 193, 263–264 (1962). https://doi.org/10.1038/193263a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/193263a0
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