Numerical simulation of the porous filter properties for the internal arc mollifying effects

A mathematical model and numerical experiments of pressure wave impacts with a porous medium are presented to simulate the valve burst out of a medium voltage switchgear and to evaluate the protection filter efficiency. A simplified one-dimensional gas flow model in porous medium with variable porosity is used. To solve numerically the governing equations, we employed the numerical method presented in Rochette et al. (2005) [18] to take into account the non-conservative term P(∂ϕ/∂x). Three sets of test are performed to study several filter prototypes. The objective is to provide a filter which does not produce a high reflected wave and cools enough the ejected hot gas. We first consider filters with variable porosity and simulate the interaction with an incident pressure wave, then we consider two types of granular material to characterize their incidence on the flow and finally, we simulate two different fluid flows (air and SF6) going through the porous medium.