The present work aims at a comparative study of the performance of relevant turbulence models in predicting the behaviour of SF6 switching arcs during the current zero period. Turbulence models studied include the Prandtl mixing length model, the standard k-ϵ model and its two variants, i.e.The Chen-Kim model and the RNG model. In order to demonstrate the effects of turbulence, a laminar flow case is also modelled. Based on the computational results, a detailed analysis of the physical mechanisms encompassed in each flow model is given to show the adequacy of each model in describing the rapidly varying arcing process during the current zero period. The computed values of the critical rate of rise of recovery voltage (RRRV) are subject to verification by experimental results covering a wide range of discharge conditions. The relative merits of the flow models are discussed
