The study of arc behavior is important to understand the dynamic phenomena concerning the interruption process in a variety of switching devices. This paper is devoted to investigate the influence of gassing material on blow open force and arc motion. To one double- breaker model, measuring the arc current, voltage and force acting on the moving conductor, the characteristics of the ratio of the emerging blow open force over arc power FB/（ui） could be obtained. With the help of a 2-D optical fiber measurement system, to one arc chamber model, arc motion behavior was measured, too. It is demonstrated that, with the action of gassing material, FB/（ui） will increase 2.5 times, and the arc will enter the splitter plates much easier.
FLUENT and ANSYS codes are used to solve the magnethydrodynamics （MHD） equations and electromagnetic field equations, respectively. An interface code is developed to implement the bi-direction transfer of calculation data between FLUENT and ANSYS. Then a 2-D MHD arc model is built up with the consideration of the nonlinear ferromagnetic material. The arc shape, gas flow velocity and magnetic field distribution are presented at a current of 200 A. The influence of the number of splitter plates on arc motion is also analyzed.
A numerical study of the effects of copper and silver vapours on the air arc behavior is performed. The commercial software FLUENT is adapted and modified to develop a twodimensional magneto-hydrodynamic （MHD） models of arc with the thermodynamic properties and transport coefficients, net emission coefficient for the radiation model of 99% ai-1% Cu, 99% air-1% Ag, and pure air, respectively. The simulation result demonstrates that vaporization of the electrode material may cool the arc center region and reduce the arc velocity. The effects of Ag vapour are stronger compared to those of Cu vapour.
