Erosion Rate of Carbon Contacts by Arc Discharge in Various Fuels

• 作 者: KoichiroSawa;ChengChanWei;TakahiroUeno;
• 机 构: Nippon Institute of Technology 4-1 Gakuendai,Miyashiro-cho,Saitama,345-8501 Japan
• 出 处: 第十三届国际机电装置会议(IS-EMD2013)
• 发表日期: 2013年期

　　A small DC motor is used to drive an automotive fuel pump.In the DC motor the commutation arc causes a high rate of wear/erosion of brush and commutator.Recently considerable attention has been paid to bio-fuels such as ethanol, methanol and others.Therefore, it is important how the commutation arc influences the erosion and wear of commutator and brush in various fuels.In this paper the mass change of carbon contacts by arc discharge is examined in air, gasoline, ethanol, methanol, butanol and MTBE (methyl tert-butyl ether).Tests with switching operation of 30,000 times are carried out and after the tests the mass loss is evaluated by a 3D laser microscope.Consequently, it can be made clear that mass loss per unit arc energy is almost same among various fuels, and is around 0.9 μm3/μJ for cathode and anode of arc duration below about 30 μsec..Further, based on the previous and present results the lifetime is predicted and compared with the experimental results of the commutation tests.