Abstract: To enhance nominal current of high voltage vacuum circuit breakers (VCBs), a gravity heat pipe was proposed to replace stationary conducting rod of a high voltage vacuum interrupter. The heat pipe is composed of two coaxis tubes: the external tube is made of oxygen-free copper and the inner tube is made of stainless steel. The bottom end of the inner stainless steel tube is connected to the external copper tube by holes. Transient and static thermal performance of the heat pipe was measured, and the thermal resistance of it was compared with that of a solid copper rod with the same dimensions. Experimental results showed that thermal resistance of the heat pipe was about 1/3 of that of the copper rod, and it decreased slightly with the rising of the input heat flux. 3D thermal simulation on a 126 kV/2000 A single break VCB was done to compare the thermal performance between the proposed gravity heat pipe and the copper rod serving as the stationary conducting rod of the vacuum interrupter. Simulation results revealed that in the heat pipe case, the maximum temperature between contacts was 67 °C lower than that in the copper rod case.

Key words: Heat pipe, Vacuum circuit breakers (VCBs), Vacuum interrupters, Nominal current, Thermal simulation

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