Simulation Study on Evolution Characteristics of Discharge Channel after Air Gap Breakdown

The evolution of the discharge channel after air gap breakdown has a critical influence on the gap recovery process. In this paper, a simple model of the discharge channel is established, the evolution of discharge channel after the gap breakdown is simulated and studied, and the calculation method of the temperature recovery degree of the channel is proposed. The simulation results show that, according to the definition of the gap recovery degree, the discharge channel completes the insulation recovery process within 200ms when the initial temperature is 10000°C and 20000 °C with the channel radius of 0.5mm and 1mm; both the initial temperature and radius of the discharge channel play an important role in the recovery process.