A new method combing improved total variation diminish scheme (TVD) with finite volume method (FVM) has been applied for calculating the N - S and K - epsiv equation of flow field in SF6 circuit breaker under cold gas breaking. In calculating, the influence of structure parameter on the interrupting performance is taken into consideration. Through the computation and analysis of dielectric recovery voltage, a new concept has been presented, that is, the dielectric recovery characteristic is a curve band with a certain fluctuation range. Moreover, the taboo search optimization algorithm has been improved and applied in optimizing the electric field distribution for improving the dielectric recovery characteristic.