Experimental and Numerical Studies of Nozzle Ablation and Geometric Change in Real Gas Circuit Breakers

This paper introduces experimental and numerical analysis of nozzle ablation in SF6 gas circuit breakers. Ablation and changes in the diameter of a nozzle were measured in the experiments. In addition, an ablation model was developed and simulations of nozzle ablation were carried out. The relationship between geometric changes to the nozzle due to ablation and the injection energy was investigated using both experimental measurements and data predicted by simulation. The predicted values for mass loss and geometric changes to the nozzles tested show similar tendencies to the experimental results. Also, the developed ablation model was applied to the mixture of fluoronitrile and CO2 gas. By predicting flow and pressure changes due to the ablation effect, the interruption performance of gas circuit breakers after repeated testing can be analyzed.