II

254 Transactionson power Delivery, Vol. 7 N0.1, 1992

C MOTION -mBURN THROUGH IN Gm
W. Boeck ,Senior Member, I.E.E.E. K.Kriiger
Technical University Munich PreussenElektra Hamover
Fed.Rep.Germany

ABSTRACT - Two different mechanisms are current and the design of the barrier there
effective for the burn-through process of will be a stationary arc respectively an
GIS encapsulation by an internal arc during azimuthal back and forth or rotating arc
an in-service fault, the material erosion motion, which has an important influence on
by melting and evaporation and the weake- the burn-through time.
ning of the material by heating. Depending For the stationary arc with current I in
on the arc motion one of these mechanisms kA, the time t in ms to puncture an alumi-
may be dominating. So far inexplicable mo- num plate with thickness d in mm was found
tions of the arc are explained especially to be
the arc rotation at a spacer and the axial
motion in case of symmetrical current fee- d
t 282- T O . 864
[ll
ding. These considerations are confirmed by 1

experimental results and experience from t =(430 . . .6 5 0 ) d .

I [2,41 (2)
industry and they result in sowe recommen-
dations f o r the design and the protection
concept. In this case the arc was fixed by a rod
electrode opposite to the punctured slab.
INTRODUCTION Tests in real GIS led to on principle dif-
In case of an one-sided current feeding ferent equations, where the time is depen-
(Fig.la) the axial motion of an arc is ding on d2.
caused by magnetic forces F. Laboratory
tests have shown that such an axial motion d1.77
t 07.4- 10.67
is mostly given even in case of symmetrical -

..500)

-
feeding with opposite currents (Fig.lb). t-=(60.
d2
- [6] (4)
The arc is finally impeded by a spacer or I.
other insulating barriers. Depending on the t = 200- d 2
I [71 (5)

The arc was triggered at the spacer in

I 112 111 I/2
order to eliminate the preceding arc travel

-
time as taken into account in [3] and to
h a -
cover the most severe case. In all cases
the foot point of the arc during its motion
spread over a large area on the encapsula-
a) b) tion by an azimuthal irregular back and
Fig. 1. Magnetic forces F at a perpendi- forth motion or an even rotLtion [ 7 ] .
cular arc Taking into account the investigated CUE-
a) One-sided current feeding rent range equ.(l) and ( 2 ) can be simpli-
b) Symmetrical feeding with opposite fied for the fixed arc
currents d t =cl-
I
C., = (345., .650)k A r n ~ m m - ~ ( 6 )
and equ.(3),(4)(5) can be simplified for
the moving arc
91 WM 033-1 PWRD A paper recommended and approved
by the IEEE Substations Committee of the IEEE Power
t = d2
c2 -1
.
C, = ( 6 0 . . . 5 0 0 ) k ~ m s m m - ~(7)
Engineering Society for presentation at the IEEE/PES Mainly caused by the bigger scatter of the
1991 Winter Meeting, New York, New York, February
3-7, 1991. Manuscript submitted July 26, 1990; area covered by the moving foot point C2
made available for printing January 3, 1991. has a much bigger range than C1. The lowest
value of C2 results in similar burn-through
times as for the fixed arc. Probably in [ 6 ]
test results are included where the arc
motion was very much restricted.
0885-8977/91/!$3.@3@1992ED3
 255
ARC MOTION will lead to opposite forces at both foot-
A s shown in Fig. (la) the magnetic forces at points which promote the destabilisation
the arc are decreasing with their distance out of the perpendicular position. The
from the foot point, where they theoreti- current in the vicinity of the foot point
cally get infinite. In order to compare the on a plate electrode will be radially
driving magnetic forces of the arc it is directed as shown in Fig.3. For both types
therefore sufficient to consider the domi- of current feeding the magnetic forces are
nating forces and magnetic fields close to Fc = (1-siny)
- (10)
the foot point. They depend mainly on the Fo cosy
current distribution in the vicinity of the
foot point since the influence of the
current decreases with the square value of
the distance. Even the current in the
opposite electrode as shown by broken lines
in Fig.2 shall be neglected because of the
big electrode distances given in high
voltage equipment. A l l values are related
to the force F, of an one-sided fed perpen-
dicular arc between rod shaped electrodes.
For all cases of current flow to the foot Fig. 3 . Magnetic forces F at an oblique
point the forces are in the same way de- arc footing on a plate electrode
pending on their distance from the foot
point. Therefore these related values F/F, Fig.6a shows the forces according equ.(8),
are constant along the arc and can be (9) and (10). For all arc angles y<120" we
considered as representative for the magne- get lFal >IFbl >IFcl
tic propulsion. According to the theoreti- A s to the axial motion in a GIS (Fig.4a),
cal derivations in [8] we get for an arc an initially perpendicular arc (1) ( y = g o o )
angle y and a rod electrode for an one- is considered. The current flow in the
sided feeding (Fig.2a) inner conductor is similar to that in a rod
electrode while that in the external encap-
cosy sulation resembles the radial distribution
-Fa = 1f
and
Fo s iny according Fig.3. In case of an one-sided
feeding there are therefore much bigger
-Fb = coty forces at the inner conductor. This leads
F*
to an axial motion of the arc with a pre-
for a symmetrical feeding with opposite ceding foot point at the internal conductor
currents (Fig.2b). In the last case there (2). The external foot point runs after
with a smaller impeding force due to the
current flow and the arc angle. The oppo-
site forces at the foot points may increase
the slant (3) and the promoting force at
the internal conductor. This explains the
uniform track of the arc on the conductor
and the discontinuous spotty track on the
encapsulation as often observed. Therefore,
just a common epoxy resin covering and any
similar layer of more than 250 mm length on
the internal conductor impedes the axial

. a) I ,
I/2 b) I/2,
arc motion [6]. But the foot point at the
encapsulation will be drawn over such
insulationlayers. This implies recommanda-
Fig. 2 . Magnetic forces at an oblique arc tions for the design as given in the con-
between rod shaped electrodes with clusions. In case of symmetrical feeding
one-sided feeding (a) or symmetri- with opposite currents (Fig.4a) and an
cal feeding (b) initially radial direction (y = 9 0 " ) there
are no magnetic forces at all. But by
will be no force at all for the perpen- random thermodynamics the arc will be
dicular arc (y = 90"). But any deviation slanted. This will be promoted by the
caused by random thermodynamics of the arc resulting magnetic forces. Due to the
256
prevailing forces at the internal conductor
there will be a similar axial motiori as for
one-sided feeding. But these forces are
smaller and especially for smaller currents
behavior is caused by the comparatively
small axial angle 13 in position 2 and the
resulting small azimuthal forces (Fig.6b).
For cone angles 6 of approximately 50" and
more such small axial arc angles are impos-
sible due to the lack of space. A similar
azimuthal motion was found on both sides of
the spacer.

P=90 0.5 fFd'Fo 'I=LOO

b)
Fig.4.(a) Axial arc motion or one-sided
current feeding from the left
and symmetrical current feeding
(b) azimuthal arc motion

stationary arcs as reported in [3] are more

probable.
The axial movement ends at insulating
barriers. For an axially perpendicular arc
with an azimuthal angle y at the encapsula-
&L
a)
0.1

20' LOo 60800900

Fig. 6. Magnetic forces for different arc
directions in dependence of the
arc angles ( y ) and (B)

tion (Fig.3) we get azimuthal forces as

shown in Fig.4b. These lead to an azimuthal
motion promoted at the external foot point
while the arc is almost tangent to the
internal conductor.
BURN-THROUGH MECHANISY
Kolbe [l] has developed a computer program
for the calculation of burn-through times
of a stationary arc. It has been carefully
checked by experiments. Two different me-
chanisms are involved, the erosion by mel-
ting and evaporation and the weakening of
the residual material. He assumes a con-
stant current density SA of the arc and
gets a radius rA of the arc with a current
I

Fig. 5 . Axial curvature of an arc driven

into the concave (1) or the convex Furthermore he assumes a thin layer of
(2) side of a cone-shaped spacer melted aluminum with a thickness As at the
foot point of the arc. The evaporation
These azimuthal forces at the encapsulation temperature on one side and the mel-ting
are reduced if the arc is additionally axi- temperature on the other results in a
ally slanted at the encapsulation. This is temperature drop within this layer
given if the arc is axially driven into a of A 8 = 1350grd. With the coefficient o of
cone shaped spacer (Fig.5). The azimuthal the thermal conduction this leads to a
force (Fig.6b) is depending on the axial power flow P into the material
(a) and the azimuthal ( y ) angle of the arc p = a x r 2 -A U
Fd = sinP cosy A As
- (11)
F, I+ sinp siny The power flow resulting from equ.(l2) and
(13) is therefore
P = C,I c, = - aAU
In case of cone-shaped spacers with a small SAAs
cone angle 5 of 20" experiments have shown Applying the considerations of Kolbe two
that the arc (Fig.5) in position 2 tends to cases shall be regarded where either the
burn stationary while an azimuthal motion erosion process or the material weakening
was given in position 1 [8]. This different process is dominating. In case of a moving
 257
foot point. Its stay t dA/A during the time nating effect. The melting-through time is
t at each surface element dA is short. The reached when the volume A d of the material
material will be heatened up and weakened is melted. Considering the power flow into
before an important erosion takes place. the material according to equ.(l4) snd the
Taking into account the encapsulation heat capacity Chm for heating up to mel-
thickness d , the heat capacity C and the
mass density p o f its material the volume
element d dA will get the temperature 6
C,
dA =
I t - C, p d dA 6 (15)
A

(150..12501C (300...L001C
Fig. 7. Mechanical strength oB for aluminum

Aluminum loses its mechanical strength al- Fig. 8. Typical appearances of a hole in
ready at few 100C. The temperature de- an aluminum encapsulation caused
pendence of the mechanical strength oB can by a rotating arc
be assumed to be on principle (Fig.7) [ 9 ]
inversely proportional to 6. ting temperature and subsequent. melting we
1
O B = c - (16) get C p A - d.
t = A
(19)
4 8 c
3 I
From of equ.(l5) and (16) we get
In accordance with equ.(6) we get a depen-
dence on d for the puncture time and the
edge of the hole is smooth without any
The encapsulation will tear open at the tears and shows no symptoms of material
border of the area A covered by the wande- bursting [ 8 ] . The same is given for steel
ring arc when the tensile stress o caused in any case because it does not have the
by the gas pressure p reaches at the border typical drop of the strength before melting
the mechanical strength oB. For an azimu- as aluminum. Depending on the motion the
thal back and forth motion covering a cir- burn-through process of alirninum may be
cular area with the radius x or an even ro- caused by both mechanisms. Therefore all
tation covering an strip around the encap- types of holes are possible with an appear-
sulation with a width x the tensile stress ance between that of Fig.8 and that with a
at the border will be U = x p / 2 d. It smooth edge without any tears.
will lead to tearing for U = oB according The value of C1 ( = A Chm p / C 3 ) is mainly
to equ.(l7) after the time irifluenced by the area A covered by the
arc. If the arc is artificially fixed
[1,2,4]by a rod electrode in a laboratory
test A is comparatively srllall. In veal GIS
In accordance with equ.(7j we get a depen- where the spacer impedes t-he axial motion
dence on d2 for the burn-through time for and the spacer shape leads to no azimuth-
the moving arc. Additionally this mechanism al motion, the arc will be semi-stationary.
will lead to a break-through resulting in It is not so stringently fixed at the
a jut out frayed fringe of the hole and inner conductor leading to larger areas
tears as shown in Fig.8. A and an approximate minimum value
In case of a stationary arc the area A C -6OOkA rns mm-l [ 8 ] . The most important
1
:
covered by the moving foot point is small. point is that the arc motion leads to long
Therefore the erosion will be the domi- burn-through times.
258
CONCLUSIONS FOR THE DESIGN AND THE PRO-
TECTION CONCEPT.
By the protection system and the design of
the GIS a high degree of safety to personal
has to be secured in case of an internal
arc during an in-service fault. Regarding
the design first everything should be done
in order to initiate and maintain the arc
motion.
The axial motion should not be impeded by
insulating coverings embracing the inter-
nal conductor in the compartments between
the gas barriers. Mountings, holes and
coverings at the encapsulation can be
accepted due to their low influence to
this motion.
A l l barriers especially the spacers
should be shaped in such a way, that the
azimuthal forces on the arc are not
considerably reduced. Especially small
cone angles of cone-shaped spacer should
be avoided.
Under these circumstances an axial motion
of an arc with one-sided current feeding is
ensured. A symmetrical feeding of an arc is
rarely given. But even for this seldom
event an axial motion is very probable. The
azimuthal motion at the barriers can be
regarded as much likely. Since the forces
increase with square value of the current
this is valid at least for the crucial
cases of high short circuit currents.
Normally a two stage protection system is
applied for GIS and the following relevant
requirements out of IEC-517 have to be
considered.
The wall thickness of the enclosure shall
be based on the design pressure as well
as on the minimum withstand duration
without burn-through of 0.1 s for cur-
rents of 40 kA and above and 0.2 s for
lower currents. This applies to the quick
acting first stage protection system.
For the fault clearance time of the
second stage protection the external
effects of an arc shall be limited to the
appearance of a hole or a tear in the
enclosure without any fragmentation,
In case of the break-through mechanism of
the moving arc such a fragmentation is not
reliably excluded even by a fast acting
pressure relief device like a bursting
disk. Therefore, in this case no puncture
at all should occur. Such a type of punc-
ture is restricted to the azimuthally
moving arc at the barriers. Therefore it
should be proven that the withstand dura-
tion in the vicinity of these barriers
additionally covers the fault clearing time
of the second stage protection.
Due to the statistical scatter of the test
results and the high number of critical
locations many tests would be necessary to
get sufficient information. But the test
expenditure can be reduced and reliable
results can be gained if the following
aspects are considered.
All areas of the encapsulation which may
be run over by the foot point of the arc
repeatedly are to be considered as possi-
ble locations for a puncture. The 'sta-
tionaryarc caused by symmetrical current
feeding can be disregarded due to its low
probability for critical short circuit
currents. Therefore such locations are
only given at barriers like space--.or at
long insulating wrappings of the internal
conductor where the axial motion is
impeded.
For the minimum withstand duration of the
encapsulation the arc has to be ignited
directly at these locations in order to
avoid a previous axial arc motion [ 3 ] .
To include the worst case with regard to
the azimuthal arc motion the arc has to
be positioned on the more unfavorable
side of the barrier for instance on the
convex side of a cone-shaped spacer. In
case of doubt the test has to be done on
both sides.
The tests have to be made at least over
the full fault clearance time for the
second stage protection system and the
burn-through time has to be measured.
For the protection concept of the GIS the
withstand capability of the GIS against
internal arc has to be taken into account.
If the withstand duration exceeds the
fault clearance time of the second stage
protection system all requirements are
met and the two-stage protection system
can be realized as assumed for the test.
If the withstand duration is shorter than
0.1s respectively 0.2s according to the
first stage protection the test has
failed.
For a puncture time between 0.1s respec-
tively 0.2s and the fault clearance time
of the second stage protection a further
fast acting protection redundant to the
first stage protection has to be in-
stalled in order to get sufficient safety
to personnel [ l o ] . The fault clearance
time of this protection should be shorter
than the withstand duration gained by the
test. Furthermore, it has to be regarded
that the withstand duration exceeds the

required time of 0 . 1 s respectively 0.2s
only insignificantly. Due to the scatter
of the arc motion it is not sufficiently
certain that no puncture occurs within
the clearance time of the first stage
protection in any case. Therefore, it has
to be additionally required that no
puncture occurs in case of a stationary
arc which is considered as worst case.
Any fixing of the arc at the internal
conductor during the test would lead to
unreal short withstand durations. For the
same reason equ.(l) or (2) should not be
applied for calculations as proposed in
[ 111. For the semi-stationary arc in real
GIS the withstand duration can only be
gained by equ. (6) with C 600 kA AS mrn'l.
It has to be checked wrether the wall
thickness of the encapsulation in the
vicinity of the barriers complies with
this equation for both quick acting
redundant protection systems. For in-
stance in case of 420 kV GIS and a short
circuit current of 50kA besides the
normal first stage protection with a
fault clearance time of 0.1s a second
redundant one with a clearance time of
0.18s was installed which complies with
the wall thickness of 15mm in the vici-
nity of the barriers for a semi-stationa-
ry arc caused by the barrier design.
Kolbe W. , "Durschschmelzen von ebenen
Metallplattenelektroden durch Hoch-
stromlichtbogen in SF6. 'I
ETZ-A 96 (1975) pp 569-572
Pettersson K.G. and Granstrom E.V.,
"Design of Gas Insulated Substations
with Respect to Internal Arcs."
IEE Report, Pub1.157 (1977) pp. 66 - 70
Chu F.Y., Ford G.L., and Law C.K.,
"Estimation of Burn Through Probability
in SF6 Insulated Substations."
IEEE Trans. Vol PAS-101 (1982) pp. 1391
- 1969
Ericson A., Discussion in [3]
Bernard G. ,"Electrical Faults Maste-
ry in High Voltage SF6-Insulated
Substations I'
Revue Generale de L'Electricite RGE 4
(1982) pp. 231 - 249
Mori S . , Imai S . , Ninomyiya K . , Hata
H., Hayashi T., Itaka K.,and Hota T.,
"Effect of Internal Conductor to En-
closure Arcs on SF6 Gas Insulated
Transmission Lines" IEEE Trans. Vol.
259
PAS-102 (1983) pp. 860 - 869
71 DieRner A., and Schramm H.H., Dis-
cussion in [3]
[8] Boeck W., "Storlichtbogenfestigkeit
gasisolierter Schaltanlagen (GIs)"
ETZ-Archiv 12 (1990) pp. 353-361
[9] Aluminium-Zentrale Dusseldorf:
Aluminiumtaschenbuch, Aluminium-
Verlag, Dusseldorf, (Edition 1988)
[lO]Kruger K., "Sicherheitskonzept fur
380 kV-isolierte Schaltanlagen bezug-
lich innerer Lichtbogenfehler."
ETG - Conference, May 1990, Munich
[11]Bojik P., "Innere Bogendynamik und
einige Auswirkungen des Durchbrennens
bei metallgekapselten SF6-isolierten
Schaltanlagen" .
Wissenschaftlich technische Mit-
teilungen IPH Berlin 110 (1988),
pp.30-34
Wolfram A . Boeck was born 1934 in Gdansk.
He got his Dip1.-Ing. degree at University
Stuttgart in 1959 and his Dr.-Ing. degree
1967 at Techn. University Braunschweig. He
has been working since 1959 at Siemens AG,
PTB and Calor-Emag in the field of High
Voltage Engineering especially GIS and got
1970 Full Professor at Techn. University in
Darmstadt and 1976 in Munich. He is member
of WG 23-03 (GIS) and Convener of WG 15-03
(Gas Insulation) of CIGRE and mainly active
in the field of GIS research.
b r s t e n KriWer was born 1942 in Berlin. He
got his Dip1.-Ing. degree at the University
of Berlin in 1969. After the studies he
worked for Siemens AG in the field of High
Voltage Engineering especially GIs. Since
1971 he has been employed by PreussenElek-
tra in Hannover, the second largest West
German utility, where he is responsible for
planning, construction and putting into
operation of high voltage substations.
260

Discussion In all cases no erosion of the wall took place outside the 150 mm section
of increased wall thickness.
Heinz-H. Schramm, (Siemens AG, Berlin, Germany): The authors have Summarizing, the tests showed that a cast aluminum housing of 18 mm
presented a significant contribution which may be used by the design wall thickness will withstand an arc of 50 kA for at least 600 ms if the
engineer as a tool for an optimized shaping of the housings of gas spacer or bushing has a cone angle of 60. In general this withstand time
insulated high-voltage substations. Up to now only the pressure rise covers the second stage of protection in high voltage transmission systems.
caused by an intemal arc could be calculated. Also, some approximation Manuscript received March 4, 1991.
formulae were known to determine the withstand time or wall thickness, if
test results were available in housings of similar design. Now, Boeck and
Krueger take into account the influence of the shape of spacers upon the F. Y. Chu, (Ontario Hydro Research Division): The authors should be
behaviour of the arc which is of major influence on the withstand of the commended for presenting an important paper which describes the com-
enclosure. plex motion of power arcs in GIS and relates the arc motion to burn-
through times. In particular, the authors explain that burnthrough times in
stationary arc depend linearly on the thickness of the enclosure, d while
for moving arcs, the burnthrough times depend on dZ. The explanation
settles the controversy outlined in references [3] & [4] of the paper.
The other important contribution of the paper is the explanation of the
mechanisms governing the arc azimuthal motion. In 1980, the discusser
conducted many tests studying the axial motions of power arcs in a
co-axial geometry. In 21 cases, the azimuthal motions were also obtained
with a high speed imaging camera. The motions appeared to be random
with about 30% in the clockwise direction, 20% counterclockwise and
50% stationary. In all cases the arc was initiated elsewhere and stopped in
front of a flat disc barrier spacer. According to the authors formulation,
since B = We, F. /Fewould entirely depend on r, the arc angle with
respect to the conductor. For a perpendicular arc, I = W, F./F. = 1
(according to equation 11) the arc would be stationary. As the experiments
were conducted with currents with various magnitudes feeding from both
sides, r may vary from 90 which may explain the clockwise and
counterclockwise motion. It seems that the authors model is successful in
explaining the discussers observations which appeared to be random at
that time. Would the authors care to comment on the above discussion?
In equation 19, the authors present a relationship between burnthrough
The purpose of this discussion contribution is to present test results time and other physical parameters such as heat capacity, thickness and
which obviously verify the findings of the authors. An arc of 53 kA was density with C, as the fitting constant. The discusser would like to know
drawn immediately in front of a conical spacer in a housing of a GIS rated whether a more rigorous model for estimating burnthrough time can be
420 kV, as shown in Figure 1. The cone angle was approximately 60. developed using such techniques as finite element thermal calculation
Over a length of about 150 mm next to the flange the wall consisted of 18 while taking into account of the heat capacity variation with temperature
mm cast aluminum. The inner conductor was of aluminum, also. No
and phase change phenomenon near the melting point.
internal or external means were provided to influence the moving of the In the conclusion, the authors appear to suggest that burnthrough should
arc. not be allowed under any circumstances and one of the solutions is to
The housing had a volume of 280 litres. The arc voltage varied mostly prolong the arc motion. while the discusser agrees with authors that
between 700 V and 900 V. The housing was filled with SF, of 4.5 bars burnthrough should be avoided so that the arc byproducts can be contained
gange. It was equipped with a burst disc which operated at 9 to 10 bars in the enclosure, the discusser has some doubt about avoiding burnthrough
fwge. by purposely extending the arc motion for too long. The pressure rise in
the gas compartment should also be an important consideration under fault
Test d l fkst current arC tima burst conditions. Prolonged arcing may lead to rapid pressure rise in the
No. w voltape disc
compartment. This continuous pressure rise without adequate means of
P U U V W mm relief must be avoided to prevent catastrophic bursting of the enclosure.
The discusser would like to view burnthrough as another way to relieve
1 18 135 52.9 700 - 900 615 20
the pressure (other than via the bursting disc) so that the enclosure would
not burst in an uncontrolled manor which could have a far greater impact
2 18 111.5 52.5 600 - 1000 613 18 than burnthrough. It appears that an optimal design should take into
account of bursting disc operation, burnthrough time, and container
3 14 110 38 700 - 900 605 19
integrity with respect to pressure rise.
I
Reference
Two tests were carried out under indentical conditions. The Table lists [ l ] EPRI Report EL-2248, Fault Analysis in Gas Insulated
the results. Current was maintained for 615 resp. 613 milliseconds. The Equipment, Feb. 1982.
burst disc opened after 20 resp. 18 milliseconds.
In both tests the housing withstood the arc without bum through. The
inspection afterwards revealed that the arc had moved radially over
approximately 270 of the circumference. Maximum erosion was 6 mm. S. A. Boggs, (Underground Systems, Inc. Armonk, NY 10504): This
In a third test an identical housing but with 14 mm cast aluminum wall paper presents the GIs community with an outstanding technical accom-
was subjected to an arc of 38 kA with the current flowing for 605 ms. plishment. The authors have provided a well-integrated, practical, and
After 550 ms this housing burned through forming a hole of 25 mm elegant theoretical framework for a set of phenomena related to arc motion
diameter. in GIS which have been well known to but not theoretically explained by
However, the overall appearance of this housing was similar to those GIS experts for well over a decade. In providing the theoretical basis for
after the two earlier tests. The arc had moved over about 160 of the more accurately predicting arc motion, especially azimuthal arc motion at
housings circumference. a spacer, the authors have provided the basis for GIS designs with greatly
Using the equation t = 87.4(d.77/Z0.67) (equation No. 3 in the paper reduced probability of bum through, and in doing so, they have done a
of Boeck and Krueger) we found that the result of the third test agreed great service for manufacturers and users alike.
well with those of the two 53 kA tests in the enclosure with the 18 mm As with most engineering solutions, the authors solution involves
wall: If subjected to an arc of 50 kA a cast aluminum wall of 18 mm approximations which inevitably provide the basis for questions. In the
would have withstood for 714 ms. Thus, this test could be used to case of the present paper, the authors assume that the current spreads out
determine the actual withstand time of such enclosures. symmetrically at the root of the arc. In the case of an arc fed from one

direction, we know that the vast majority of the current returns to the
source through the enclosure. This means that at some distance from the
arc root, the current is not symmetric, although a basis for predicting the
distance at which the current distribution becomes substantially asymmet-
ric is not clear to the commenter. One common way to handle an
approximation is to evaluate its robustness through sensitivity analysis.
I would, therefore, ask the authors (1) do they have any basis for
estimating the asymmetry in current distribution vs distance from the arc
root and (2) have they carried out any sensitivity analysis to determine the
variation in the calculated arc motion (or forces on the arc) as a function
of the degree of asymmetry in the current distribution as a function of
distance from the arc root?
W. BOECK, K. KRUEGER: We appreciate the al-
together positive comments on our paper. As
to the comment of Steven A. Boggs we agree
that of course the current flow deviates from
the symmetrical direction in some distance
from the foot point of the arc. Further re-
search work is necessary for a quantitative
consideration of the phenomena. It will be
much more difficult to take into account the
real shape of the arc itself which addition-
ally influences the forces and motions.
The authors are also of the opinion of
Mr.F.Y. Chu that his experience with regard
to the azimuthal arc motion supports their
model. The intensity of the azimuthal motion
261
is influenced by the current and the type of
feeding. At the beginning there is at least
a small deviation out of the perpendicular
direction necessary to get azimuthal forces.
This will be caused by irregular thermally
forces of the arc. In case of small currents
and magnetic forces this results in a
clockwise and a counterclockwise back and
forth motion. In case of low intensity the
arc appears to be stationary. For bigger cur-
rents the first random motion out of the per-
pendicular direction is decisive for the fol-
lowing directions of the arc rotation.
As to the burnthrough time and equation 19 a
computer program applying the finite element
method was already used in reference [ l ] and
the thesis of the author. But the main pro-
blem in this field is the big scatter of the
area which is covered by the root of the arc.
As to the last question of F. Y. Chu of cour-
se everything has to be done to avoid a bur-
sting due to pressure rise. But by adequate
pressure relief or pressure limiting measures
a concept can be realized which takes advan-
tage of all physical phenomena resulting in
a safe design with negligible extra costs as
for instance shown in the discussion of
Mr.Heinz H. Schramm.
Manuscript received August 28, 1991.