CFD benchmark validation study on simulation based breakdown voltage prediction in capacitive switching of high voltage circuit breaker

A CFD benchmark validation study for predicting breakdown voltage in capacitive switching test duties in high voltage circuit breaker is presented. The solver qualities of two different CFD tools based on qualitatively different numerical algorithms have been compared. The compared CFD algorithms are the pressure-correction based SIMPLEC scheme which is widely used in commercial tools and the density based Jameson's method with explicit time marching. We then investigate on how the different compressible flow solver quality influences on the prediction capability of the breakdown voltages in capacitive switching test duties, for actual high voltage circuit breakers.