Pressure Monitoring Techniques of Vacuum Interrupters

There is a growing concern to monitor the pressure inside the vacuum interrupters for their integration into the network and to ensure their reliability. At present, traditional methods to measure degree of vacuum inside a vacuum interrupter cannot be applied universally and are generally design specific. Some of the methods described in the literature can only be applied in laboratory conditions and are not economical. There is, therefore, a need to have a pressure detecting technique which is more reliable, does not need electric or magnetic fields to be applied to the interrupter and could even be considered absolute. In this paper, novel methods for on-line pressure measurement have been described which are independent of the design, shape and size of vacuum interrupters. These novel techniques do not influence the pressure during measurement and therefore, could be applied universally. There is a need for a consensus on this issue between vacuum interrupter manufacturers.