How to Mitigate Arcing Inside Relays of Electric Vehicles?
The future of transportation seems to be increasingly electric. In its latest report on electric vehicles (EV), the International Energy Agency (IEA) highlights a 40% increase in EV demand despite a 16% dip in the global car sales. Moving towards electrified vehicles has also pushed a shift in the vehicle design where the mechanical components are being replaced with electronic-based automotive components. Relays play a critical role in such electrified systems.
A relay is a switch that is operated electrically and is used to control a high power circuit with a low power signal circuit. The most common type of relay is an electromechanical relay that consists of terminals for the signal and the terminals where the supply and load are connected. Upon receiving a signal, an electromagnetically operated armature closes or opens the gap between the supply and the load terminals. Traditional electromechanical relays dominate the market, over solid state relays, because of their advantages in a wide operating range of voltages and currents and the low cost to manufacture due to the simplicity in design. However, the main problem that affects the lifetime of electromechanical relays is arcing.
The primary undesirable effect of arcing is sudden load surge in a circuit. This delays the signal to the primary circuit breaker to isolate the load device, which may fail due to overcurrent. Further, arcing leads to high surface temperature which can erode the terminals and contactors or even weld the contactors to the terminals. Both of these undesirable phenomena cause a great deal of reliability and safety issues. The strength and duration of the arc have a significant impact on the safety of electric vehicles as well as on relay contactor erosion, therefore the lifetime of the relay.
Therefore, it is crucial to study the formation of arcs within relays and explore designs that suppress the arc formation. At Esgee Tech, we delve further into how this disengagement happens and what could be done to improve it further. An insight into these phenomena could allow faster mitigation of arcs and thus quicker response times.
Arc – The Most Energetic Type of Plasma Discharge
A gaseous medium that experiences a sufficiently high electric field results in ionization of the medium which causes the medium to become conductive. We call this an electrical discharge. The characteristics of an electrical discharge depends on the voltage and current as shown in the figure on the left. Discharges carrying large currents, such as illustrated in this blog post, are classified as arcs. Arc is self-sustaining, i.e., it does not require an external ionization source to maintain discharge – the internal electron and gaseous processes maintain structure of the arc.
VizSpark™: The Tool of Choice for Simulating Arc Plasma
The physics of arcs is very complex. Ambient pressure, ambient temperature, geometry of the electrodes, gas composition, electromagnetic fields, external circuit parameters and surface properties all dynamically affect the formation and quenching of arcs. Industrial designs of relays need to account for all of these tightly coupled phenomena.
Our engineers at Esgee Tech have developed VizSpark™, a robust and accurate thermalized plasma simulator. VizSpark™ allows coupling of reactive plasma mechanics, fluid dynamics, transient electromagnetics, radiative mechanisms, surface erosion physics, circuit dynamics and continuously morphing boundaries. VizSpark™ also supports complex 3D industrial geometries.
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Using VizSpark™ the industrial problem of understanding arcs and optimizing design and safety of EV relays can be effectively addressed at high fidelity.
EV Relay Computational Model and Results:
The electric vehicle relay geometry described in this blog comprises a stationary anode (left terminal), a stationary ground (right terminal) and a movable contactor that disengages to break the circuit. The circuit coupled with this domain is a 220 V DC supply via a load resistor as shown in the figure below. The gas composition in the relay is hydrogen which is kept at a pressure of 1 bar and 300 K. An external magnetic field of 1T is imposed in the z-direction (into the screen).
VizSpark™ captures breakdown of arc between the electrodes accurately as shown in the illustration below. Initially, about 35A flows through the arc, upon ignition. The Arc stretches outwards due to Lorentz force generated by the interaction of the arc with the external magnetic field. The total resistance of the arc increases as it stretches. This decreases the current and cools down the arc as temperature decreases due to reduction in joule heating.
The partially extinguished arc reignites several times, around 400 µs, before finally extinguishing, in a phenomenon called restrike. VizSpark™ accurately simulates the stretching of the arc and formation of a new filament during restrikes. This is seen as a “saw-tooth” waveform in both transient voltage and current graphs.
As the gap between the contactor and terminals increases, the conditions are unfavorable for restrikes and fewer restrikes are seen in the later stages of the simulation. The potential across the gap increases to 220V and the current drops to 0A which marks a completely extinguished arc and the relay circuit is open.
Trade Studies with VizSpark™
A variety of methods can be applied to ensure faster quenching of the arc, which reduces the electrical cutoff time. A few techniques to extinguish the arc quickly are: stretching the arc through external magnetic fields, increasing the speed of the moving contactor, using gas mixtures that absorb electrons such as SF6, using gas mixtures with high thermal conductivities such as hydrogen, and using an arc chute/splitter plates to divide the main arc into smaller faster dissipating arcs. Further, use of external circuits such as snubber circuits which consist of a series configuration capacitor and resistor connected in parallel across the relay suppresses the spike in current as the voltage starts to fluctuate during arc quenching. All of these configurations can be simulated at fidelity using VizSpark™.
The computational model shown here is capable of incorporating comprehensive arc physics necessary to study quenching behavior in high-voltage EV relays. The model can be used to perform design/parametric studies on EV relays in reasonable computational time. Future work should involve detailed validation of the model with existing experimental data. Other avenues of research include incorporating eroded metal vapor, the inclusion of arc chute or splitter plates, and electrode deformation due to erosion.
Finding this interesting? Let’s connect!
We hope you are someone who is as fascinated about plasma flow simulations as we are, feel free to follow us at LinkedIn or reach out to us at info@esgeetech.com.
In the meantime, explore the following journal articles (do ask us for a free copy!):
- Karpatne, A., Breden, D., and Raja, L., “Simulation of Arc Quenching in Hermetically Sealed Electric Vehicle Relays,” SAE Int. J. Passeng. Cars – Electron. Electr. Syst. 11(3):149-157, 2018, https://doi.org/10.4271/2018-01-0765.
- N. Ben Jemaa, L. Doublet, L. Morin and D. Jeannot, “Break arc study for the new electrical level of 42 V in automotive applications,” Proceedings of the Forth-Seventh IEEE Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts (IEEE Cat. No.01CH37192), 2001, pp. 50-55, https://www.doi.org/10.1109/HOLM.2001.953189
- R. Ma et al., “Investigation on Arc Behavior During Arc Motion in Air DC Circuit Breaker,” in IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science, vol. 41, no. 9, pp. 2551-2560, Sept. 2013, https://www.doi.org/10.1109/TPS.2013.2273832
