Arc and contact resistance characteristics of Ag and Pd contacts were determined in several kinds of dielectric liquids, such as distilled water, methanol and n-hexane, under the inductive load condition. The experimental results showed that arc discharge types are dependent on dielectric liquids. A steady arc develops in air under this test condition. However, it was found that not the steady arc but the showering arc occurs in distilled water and methanol at a low load current. It was demonstrated that this phenomenon is caused by the high capacitance generated by the ambient dielectric liquid. Also, in almost all cases, the contact resistance behavior in dielectric liquids is satisfactory because metal spots remain on the contact surface. However, in n-hexane, the contact resistance tends to deteriorate, particularly for the Ag contact, with increasing load current. It seems that the deterioration of contact resistance is caused by carbon included in n-hexane.

The electromagnetic interference (EMI) induced by steady arc has been demonstrated to be dependent on arc voltage fluctuation when the arc transfers from the metallic phase to the gaseous phase. In order to give the physical understanding of this arc voltage fluctuation and EMI, several typical materials, such as Ag, Cu and Zr, were tested and their arc behavior was determined and compared. The experimental results indicated that the arc behavior, in particular the arc voltage fluctuation in the moment that metallic phase transfers to the gaseous phase was different for different materials. Based on the test results and former investigations, a plausible mechanism is proposed for understanding these phenomena.