Spatiotemporal Evolution of Electrical Conductivity in Current-Limiting-Fuse Arc

Abstract To improve the interruption capacity of a current-limiting fuse, a detailed diagnosis of the spatial electrical conductivity distribution inside the fuse arc under the current limiting phase around current zero is required, because this distribution determines the distribution of transient recovery voltage inside the fuse. However, well-established methodologies applicable to fuse arcs are lacking, so the spatial distribution remains unknown. This study presents a borescope-integrated spectroscopic system that simultaneously obtains single-shot recordings of the axial distributions of the electron density and arc temperature in the fuse arc just before extinction. Combining the electron densities and arc temperatures, we can identify the fuse arc composition and hence calculate the axial electrical conductivity distribution under the first Chapman–Enskog approximation. The electrical conductivity provided by this systematic methodology includes no large uncertainties, thus demonstrating its superiority against previous estimation methods of the electrical conductivity.