Preliminary experiments quantifying the arcing process in a DC circuit breaker development project

AC circuit breakers are well-established technology today. However, DC circuit breakers (DCCB) are not easy to design and build since there are no zero crossings in a DC power supply. Mechanical and semiconductor switches are the key elements considered under various circuit topologies to design DCCBs. However, mass-produced commercial DCCBs are designed by modifying AC breakers by connecting multiple poles in series and/or using permanent magnets inside the breaker to lower the cost of DCCBs except for special applications such as in the military industry. Some of the major issues behind the DCCB design are fundamentally explained in this research with simple experimental results based on DC arc characteristics. We intend using these experimental observations in a new design approach for DC circuit breakers using supercapacitor energy absorption.