Refine Your Search

Search Results

Journal Article

Simulation of Arc Quenching in Hermetically Sealed Electric Vehicle Relays

2018-04-03
2018-01-0765
The goal of this work is to investigate arc quenching in electric vehicle relays using high-fidelity computational modeling. Rapid arc quenching is an essential quality of state-of-the-art high-voltage mechanical relays in electric vehicles. As a relay begins to break electrical contact, strong arcing can occur. This delays the process of sending a signal to the primary circuit breaker to isolate the load from a sudden current surge. The strength and duration of the arc have a significant impact on the safety of electric vehicles as well as on relay contactor erosion/lifetime. A thermal plasma modeling tool is used to estimate switch-off time in an arc relay using hydrogen and air as working gases. The response of arc dynamics and switch-off time to the gas composition, external magnetic field strength, and chamber pressure is studied. It was observed that a hermetically sealed chamber filled with hydrogen is significantly more efficient than air at quenching the arc.
X