Research on Conduction Delay Time Characteristics of Double-Gap Surface Flashover Triggered Multistage Vacuum Switch

Due to the insulation saturation effect of a vacuum gap, the series connection is the main method to improve the capability of the triggered vacuum switch (STVS) to withstand voltage. In this paper, a double-gap surface flashover triggered multistage vacuum switch (DMVS) is constructed based on a removable vacuum chamber. The DMVS consists of a surface flashover triggered vacuum gap (STG) and a self-breakdown vacuum gap (SBG) in series. The trend in DMVS conduction delay time under different operating parameters and gap distances is firstly measured through experiments, and then the conduction delay time characteristics of DMVS and single-gap STVS compared. The test results show that increasing the trigger current and operating voltage and decreasing the gap distance of each vacuum gap can optimize the conduction delay time of the DMVS, but the voltage division ratio between the STG and the SBG has no obvious influence on the conduction delay time. The comparison result between the DMVS and the STVS shows that increasing the number of series gaps increases the conduction delay time but, for a certain vacuum gap distance, DMVS exhibits superior conduction delay time characteristics compared to STVS.