The Scope of the Club

The sphere of activity of the Club is limited to interruption and make phenomena in high power circuit breakers and its membership elected from those engaged in the field.

The subject would not be confined to the “interaction period” of about 100 microsecond around current zero but would include the whole arcing period or fault event in so far as this determines the initial conditions, both physical ( e. g. pressure, gas flow ) and electrical of that period.

Current interruption in all types of circuit breakers including low-voltage breakers come within the scope of the club as well as considerations of mechanical, fluid dynamical and plasma physical behaviour, as well as their measurement and monitoring technology.

Contact phenomena, however, are excluded in so far as they do not influence the interruption problem; they are to be considered, if they become important for the arcing phenomena, e.g. in vacuum interrupters.

For the time being current interruption of circuits in electricity supply systems by electric arcs is the dominant technology. Promising (alternative) developments such as synchronized contact separation, semiconductors, HVDC interruption, superconductivity, fault current limitation, alternative interruption media or the like will naturally be pursued.