Energy transfers within arcing faults in electrical equipment

Abstract

An arcing fault often develops from an insulation failure within electrical equipment. Arcing faults are substantially unconstrained free-burning arcs within electrical equipment. In order to assess the hazards of arcing faults to personnel in the immediate vicinity of the fault it is necessary to understand their nature and be able to quantify the hazards. This involves an understanding of the energy dissipation and the energy transfers in the near vicinity of these uncontrolled arcs. This paper sets out to describe the physics of arcing faults and uses this to describe the energy transfers within an arcing fault. This is the basis for describing the potential energy transfers to personnel in the vicinity of an arcing fault.