A kind of novel contact structure for 126 kV vacuum interrupter is proposed and its arc characteristic is analyzed in this paper.The contact consists of an inner arcing contact and an outer main contact.The former is a pair of 3/4 turns coil-type axial magnetic contact with diameter of 100 mm which

in case of arcing

can generate longitudinal magnetic field to effectively control the arc.While

the latter is a pair of butt type contact with diameter of140mm

simple structure and small resistance.In case of conducting rated current at closed condition

the current flows through both the main contact and arcing contact.In case of interrupting fault current

the outer main contact opens first and keeps the current commutate to the inner arcing contact.After the current commutation

the inner arcing contact performs opening operation again;thereby the vacuum arc generates and burns mainly in the inner arcing contact.In this paper

the arcing experiment and analysis for the novel contact is carried out.It is shown by the experiment result that the novel contact can control vacuum arc effectively and the of the ablation of the vacuum arc on outer main contact is slight.By way of increasing vertical height difference between the inner arcing contact and the outer main contact

the vacuum arc expands to the outer main contact later and alleviates the ablation of the outer main contact.