High Current Arc Erosion on Copper Electrodes in Air

An arc fault inside metal enclosed switchgear will cause the pressure to rise and vaporization of electrode material may contribute to the pressure rise. An experimental study of high current arc erosion on copper electrodes in air has been performed, with an evaluation of fraction lost by gross melting and vaporization. All experiments were performed at NEFI High Voltage Laboratory in Skien, Norway. The measured mass loss from vaporization in our experiments seems to be negligible compared to erosion by gross melting.