CFD Simulation of Transonic Flow in High-Voltage Circuit Breaker

A high-voltage circuit breaker is an indispensable piece of equipment in the electric transmission and distribution systems. Transonic flow typically occurs inside breaking chamber during the current interruption, which determines the insulating characteristics of gas. Therefore, accurate compressible flow simulations are required to improve the prediction of the breakdown voltages in various test duties of high-voltage circuit breakers. In this work, investigation of the impact of the solvers on the prediction capability of the breakdown voltages in capacitive switching is presented. For this purpose, a number of compressible nozzle flow validation cases have been presented. The investigation is then further extended for a real high-voltage circuit breaker geometry. The correlation between the flow prediction accuracy and the breakdown voltage prediction capability is identified.