480 volt 3-phase Arc Flash Demonstration

Here arcs were intentionally initiated by bridging wires across three copper bus bars in a testing laboratory. Three phase 480 volt power was then applied across the bus bars for about 1 second. The wires immediately explode, forming a conductive plasma which forms high current power arcs between phases. The actual fault current in the demonstration is not known, but is likely in the range of tens of kiloamps.