Looks like we finally might have a few answers later this year about DC arc flash. I met with Dr. PK Sen of the Colorado School of Mines this week and he told me that he has completed his DC arc flash testing. He will be presenting the results in a paper at this year's (2009) PCIC conference in Aneheim, CA. The conference is from September 14 - September 16, 2009.

Dr. Sen is one of the highely respected names in the area of arc flash research. I look forward to seeing his presentation and perhaps some of you will be there as well.

Well it is about time, been waiting for years on something for DC. Thanks for the update, I cant make that conference but anything you can share after you go would be great.

Absolutely! I'll continue to post what I can as it becomes available and I will be sure to provide a summary of the DC info this September.

DC arc Flash

Thanks Jim

Did you ever get a copy of the Paper?

I did receive it at the 2009 PCIC conference. It is titled:

DC Arc Models and Incident Energy Calculations
Copyright Material IEEE
Paper No. PCIC-2009-7
by Ammerman, Gammon, Sen, Nelson

I forgot about this thread since DC has become a subject in many other threads on the forum. You will see a few other DC posts around here.

Unfortunatly, I can no post the paper due to IEEE copyright rules. However if you go to the IEEE website, I am sure you can obtain a copy.

They also acknowledge Greg Leask from Bruce Power who was the main person behind a lot of the DC testing and a yet to be published report for IEEE/NFPA. Dan Doan (huge with IEEE and arc flash) also wrote a good paper in 2007 with theoretical equations that look like they may become part of the 2012 NFPA 70E. It is finally moving forward, although slowly.

FYI: This paper was just published in the IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, Vol. 46, No. 5, Sept/Oct 2010 edition. On the bottom of the pages, there is a IEEE #0093-9994 with a price of $26

Thanks ! Got the paper from the ieee site. It looks pretty good.

How high of voltage and current are you folks concerned with for DC arcs ??

We, in the Solar industry are up to 600 Volts and around 200+ Amps and
lower. Greater than 80 Volts though.

I have had an enjoyable time measuring and playing with DC arcs voltage and current up to a couple hundred volts and about 3 to 20+ Amps.

boB