Generator circuit breaker with improved switching capacity

An electrical switching device for an electrical power supply system, comprising:

• a switching chamber which is surrounded by a switching chamber enclosure and has a central axis, a first contact, a second contact, and a body with outlet openings for switching gas to flow through being provided in an exhaust area of the first or second contact, with the exhaust area being subdivided by the body into an inner volume and an outer volume, and a baffle wall for cooling the switching gas being provided in the outer volume, wherein the outlet openings of the body are configured to produce a plurality of directed gas jets directed towards the baffle wall, and are configured to produce a plurality of vortices for providing a convective heat transfer from the switching gas to the baffle wall,
• wherein:
• a) the baffle wall is attached as a heat sink to a section of the switching chamber enclosure, and
• b) the baffle wall is thermally conductively connected to the switching chamber enclosure, and
• wherein:
• c) at least one further body with further outlet openings for producing further gas jets is or are provided in the inner volume, and the inner volume is subdivided by the further body into an inner and an outer volume element, and
• d) at least one further baffle wall is arranged in the outer volume element such that the further gas jets are directed against the further baffle wall.

A method for cooling of a switching gas, in an electrical switching device for electrical power supply systems, with the switching device having a switching chamber which is surrounded by a switching chamber enclosure, wherein during a switching process the switching gas flows from an arc quenching zone to an exhaust area, thereby passes through a body which has a multiplicity of outlet openings, and is split into a plurality of directed gas jets, wherein the gas jets are swirled into a plurality of vortices and thermal energy is extracted from the vortices by a baffle wall through convection in the area of the baffle wall,

• wherein:
• a) the baffle wall is formed by at least one section of the switching chamber enclosure, or is directly attached to a section of the switching chamber enclosure, and
• b) the thermal energy is passed to the switching chamber enclosure which is thermally connected to the baffle wall, and
• wherein:
• c) the formation of the vortices is supported by interaction of the gas jets with one another before reaching the baffle wall, and
• d) the gas jets which are formed in the body are such that their trajectories cross one another before reaching the baffle wall.