Abstract: The melting erosion of contacts under the action of high temperature arc directly affects the service life and interruption performance of contacts. In order to explore the effect of arc on contact corrosion and analyze influences of corrosion process on breaking characteristics, we established a model of air arc and contacts eroding based on the MHD theory after taking the influence of energy convection and the phase change of the contact material into account, and set steady-state arc burning time to simulate the degree of contact erosion, Moreover, we simulated and analyzed the airflow field, electric field, arc temperature and contact surface temperature, and calculated the arcing time according to the breakdown criterion of steamer. The simulation results show that the contact surface deforms under the effect of high temperature of arc root, the arc temperature drops gradually, and the flow in the molten pool presents 'double vortex'. When the contacts erode, the arc power rises, the arc voltage rises at a slower rate, the arcing time rises, and the difficulty of breaking increases. In order to verify the accuracy of the simulation model, an experimental platform is built. Under the same breaking conditions, the arc shape, arc voltage and arc burning time are measured, and the experimental results are in good agreement with the simulation results.