High-Speed Camera Videos of Electrical Arc During Hot Switching Tests

<p>This repository contains high-speed camera videos showing the ignition, evolution, and extinguishing of electrical arcs generated by a single break operation. The videos were acquired to obtain a better understanding of the phenomenon of primary arcing prior to the ignition of the main arc. The electrical arcs were generated by a break operation (hot switching) between two electrodes. The static electrode is a hard-gold coated silver-nickel core rivet. The moving electrode consists of different electrical contact materials. Namely: pure silver and copper electrodes (obtained from high-purity rod material, Ag rod and Cu rod), powder metallurgically sintered silver and copper reference samples (Ag0 and Cu0), as well as carbon nanotube reinforced metal matrix composites (Ag1, Ag2, Ag, Cu1, Cu2, and Cu3, where the number indicates the weight percentage of carbon nanotubes). Well-established reference materials were also recorded, i.e., Ag-Ni 90-10, Ag-SnO2 92-8, Ag-SnO2 90-10, and Ag-SnO2 88-12. The electrical load consisted of four 50 W conventional automotive halogen lamps (direct current).</p>