Time and space resolved analysis of the visible radiation from a vacuum circuit breaker discharge

The object of the investigation was the visible radiation emitted by the metal plasma of a low-voltage, high current arc occurring in the interelectrode gap of a vacuum circuit breaker. The time evolution of the visible radiation was recorded by means of a fast multichannel light analysis system that provided sufficient space resolution to follow the vacuum arc development in experiments done at 1 kA, 2 kA and 10 kA arc peak currents. The correlated analysis of the voltage waveforms and radiation signals made possible the identification of processes related to strong localized current-electrode interactions.