Transient simulation of nozzle geometry change during ablation in high-voltage circuit breakers

In high voltage circuit breakers, radiated heat from the electric arc is strongly absorbed by surrounding poly-tetra-fluro-ethylene (PTFE) parts and causes them to reach their vaporization temperature and ablate. Ablation deforms the PTFE parts, widens the throat and hence, changes the nozzle geometry. This paper presents a physical model coupling plasma flow simulation with erosion and movement of the PTFE walls to study this phenomena. The model is first applied and validated on a segmented tube case and on a model SF6 circuit breaker for which the experimental data is available. Then, the model is used to investigate the effect of the surface ablation on the nozzle geometry in a long-operation time.