Numerical study of the short pre-arcing time in high breaking capacity fuses via an enthalpy formulation
Résumé
In order to study the short pre-arcing time in high breaking capacity (HBC) fuses, we use a mathematical model including the phase change of the fuse-element heating coupled with the Laplace equation for the potential and Ohm's law. The thermal model is based on the enthalpy formulation of the heat equation with a source term representing the Joule heating. For the time range considered (up to 10 ms), we assume no heat transfer between the fuse-element and the surrounding sand. To solve numerically the governing equations, we employ a semi-implicit scheme for time integration and a finite element method for space discretization. Using electrical and thermal properties of the silver fuse-element, we present pre-arcing characteristics (temperature, current density, potential) for a fuse-element used in industrial protection circuits.