The greenhouse effect of SFe is a great concern today. The development of high voltage vacuum circuit breakers becomes more important. The vacuum circuit breaker has minimum pollution to the environment. The vacuum interrupter is the key part of a vacuum circuit breaker. The interrupting characteristics in vacuum and arc-controlling techniue are the main problems to be solved for a longer gap distance in developing high voltage vacuum interrupters. To understand the vacuum arc characteristics and provide effective technique to control vacuum arc in a long gap distance, the arc mode transition of a cup-type axial magnetic field electrode is observed by a high-speed charge coupled device （CGD） video camera under different gap distances while the arc voltage and arc current are recorded. The controlling ability of the axial magnetic field on vacuum arc obviously decreases when the gap distance is longer than 40 ram. The noise components and mean value of the arc voltage significantly increase. The effective method for controlling the vacuum arc characteristics is provided by long gap distances based on the test results. The test results can be used as a reference to develop high voltage and large capacity vacuum interrupters.
The influence of an arc current on the discharge development and the arc modes of a single coil type axial magnetic field （AMF） electrode were investigated by a high-speed charge couple device （CCD） video camera in a long gap distance of 40 mm. The distribution of the axial magnetic field of the single coil type AMF electrode was computed. By computational results, the single coil type AMF electrode could generate higher axial magnetic flux density than the slot type AMF electrode. It was found that the single coil type AMF electrode could perform better than the slot type AMF electrode with the same designing parameters. And the development of the arc modes experienced diffuse mode, constricted but unstable mode, and constricted and stable mode with the amplitude of the arc current increasing. The correlation between the vacuum arc and the noise components of arc voltage was investigated too. The interruption capability could be known in a practical commercial vacuum interrupter by the test results in a demountable vacuum interrupter （DVC） with a electrode diameter of 50 mm and a gap distance of 40 mm.The test results could provide reference to design the high voltage vacuum interrupter adopting the single coil type AMF electrode.
Experimental study of the long-gap distance vacuum arc distortion for three types of axial magnetic field （AMF） contacts, by using high-speed charge coupled device （CCD）, is presented. The arc current was of a half-cycle sine wave with a frequency of 50 Hz, produced by an L=C discharging circuit. The time of appearance and duration of vacuum arc distortion under three conditions were studied. It was found that the gap distance, current and diameter of the electrode affected the characteristics of vacuum distortion at a long-gap distance. Some characteristics of the vacuum arc at a long-gap distance were revealed and the experience and data for further investigation were provided.
