Experimental Investigation of wall-stabilised are mechanisms of wires in fuse filler

摘要

The paper reports on an experimental investigation into a fundamental aspect of arcing behaviour in HBC fuses. The behaviour reported on is restricted to the case of silver uniform wire immersed in compacted silica sand subjected to a.c. short-circuit currents. The experimental findings indicate that arc formation and extinction processes in wires are basically simple sequential mechanisms for fuse operations characterised by wall-stabilised arc conditions. The findings lead to new explanations on how arcs behave in filled fuses and to a single mathematical expression for the arc voltage generated in HBC fuses over the complete arcing period.