Simulation on the electric field distribution for hybrid circuit breaker based on vacuum gap and CO2 gas gap

By series connected with vacuum circuit breaker, the relatively limited arc-interruption capacity of the gas circuit breaker, which employs CO₂ gas as the substitution to SF₆ gas, can be compensated to match with or approach to the interruption capacity of SF₆ gas circuit breaker. To investigate and optimize the voltage distribution between vacuum gap and CO₂ gas gap, the three dimension models of the hybrid circuit breaker in different arrangement and placement modes are built in this paper. Electric field simulation is carried on the hybrid circuit breaker models to analyze the voltage distribution of the hybrid circuit breaker under static and transient voltages. The results of simulation prove that preferable voltage distribution between two gaps can be obtained while the hybrid circuit breaker arranged and placed in “45° angle” mode. And the simulation results provide references for the establishment of the prototype of hybrid circuit breaker.