Hi,
I wanted to test an quite old high speed camera that is capable of doing 1200fps. So I thought let´s do something dangerous and load up a 350uF/1500V foil capacitor to 750V and short it with some glass fuses.
I switched it with a quite beefy contactor. The whole circuit has a resistance of around 0.3Ohm, so the short circuit current will be somewhere below 2.5kA. That´s a short circuit current that a low-impedance mains socket is also able to deliver, so the test parameters are not absolute unrealistic.
First I connected a 3A / 250V 5*20mm fast glass fuse. Surprisingly it succeeded to interrupt the current flow! The foil cap just discharged from 750V to 730V, the fuse was black but okay:
![How to blow (up) fuses](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=438915.0;attach=2360929;image)
![How to blow (up) fuses](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=438915.0;attach=2360933;image)
![How to blow (up) fuses](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=438915.0;attach=2360937;image)
I wanted some fireworks, so I took a 20A/250V 5*20mm slow glass fuse. There the result clearly shows why this fuse can not get a higher CAT-rating:
![How to blow (up) fuses](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=438915.0;attach=2360941;image)
![How to blow (up) fuses](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=438915.0;attach=2360945;image)
![How to blow (up) fuses](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=438915.0;attach=2360949;image)
![How to blow (up) fuses](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=438915.0;attach=2360953;image)
It exploded with quite a bang, and the arc that is visible in the second last image discharged the cap down to 29V. It clearly was not able to interrupt the current flow.
PS: Please don't do these experiments if you have just a slight concern about your safety. Such a capacitor is roughly equivalent to a medical defibrillator - it can easily interfere with your heartbeat.