Experimental investigation of GaInSn current limiter based on a novel principle

This paper is devoted to the experimental investigation of GaInSn current limiter based on a novel principle, which mainly takes advantage of the gas pressure in the liquid metal when arcing. According to this principle, an U-shape sliding part is designed and pushed upward under the gas pressure, which subsequently squeezes the arc into a narrow slot. Firstly, a specially designed setup is employed to observe the moving process of the sliding part along with the arc behavior. The whole process can be classified into three dynamic stages according to the frames obtained by a high-speed camera. Furthermore, the current-limiting property is verified additionally by comparing the two experimental results with and without the U-shape sliding part. Finally, the influences on the current-limiting property in different prospective current are also investigated in a complete setup. It demonstrates that this novel method can enhance the current-limiting efficiency to some extent.