Surface Temperature Analysis of Transversal Magnetic Field Contacts Using a Thermography Camera

Some vacuum interrupters (VIs) are equipped with transversal magnetic field contacts. A transversal directed Lorentz force makes the arc move circularly. The local surface temperature of the arc root is usually above the melting point at high current. The temperature of the heated and molten contact surface of a VI can be measured using a high-speed thermography camera. We present a methodology for determining the surface temperature. For this purpose, the emissivity of the contact material must be known. For Cu, we determined the emissivity at ε
_liq
= 0.053 (liquid) and ε
_sol
= 0.035 (solid) for a spectral wavelength range of 1.5-1.7 μm. Switching tests were performed using spiral contacts (CuCr 75/25) with a diameter of 68 mm and a 50-Hz half-wave sinusoidal current of 19 kA (rms). We examined the temperature of cooling anode spots of two different switching tests with various arc burning times and arc diameter. During the cooling phase of the anode spots, we observed a plateau in temperature at both measurements with different slope and duration. The plateaus started at the liquidus temperature of 1903 K of CuCr 75/25.