COMPARISON OF TEST CIRCUITS FOR HIGH-VOLTAGE CIRCUIT-BREAKERS BY NUMERICAL-CALCULATIONS WITH ARC MODELS

High-voltaqe circuit breakers are tested in the High-Power Laboratory, where test conditions prescribed by standards and switching conditions in Electrical Transmission Networks are simulated. In this paper a physical arc model to used to compare the switching behavior of circuit breakers in a direct test circuit as well as in several synthetic ones. It is found that not only the shape of the transient recovery voltaqe. but also the topology of the electrical network (and the value of the circuit elements) that supplies the transient recovery voltaqe after current interruption is of importance for the interrupting capability of SF6 and air-blast circuit breakers.