Circuit Breakers

Engr. Syed Muhammad Munavvar

Hussain
 Definition
A circuit breaker is defined as a piece of
equipment which can do any one of the
following tasks:
Makes or breaks a circuit either manually or
by remote control under normal conditions
Breaks a circuit automatically under fault
conditions
Makes a circuit either manually or by
remote control under fault conditions
Circuit Breaker with Internal
Structure
 Switching Function
Thus a circuit breaker is used for
incorporating manual as well as
automatic control for the switching
function.
The automatic control of the circuit
breaker is incorporated with the
help of relays.
The automatic control is only done
in case of fault conditions
 Advantage over Fuse
A fuse operates once and then has
to be replaced.
The main advantage associated
with the use of circuit breaker is
that a circuit breaker can be reset
(either manually or automatically)
to resume normal operation.
 Circuit Breaker Contacts

There are two types of contacts:

Primary contact
Arcing contact
 Circuit Breaker Contacts
The primary contact is always
made of a high conductive material
such as copper (Cu).
The arcing contact is made of arc
resistance material such as
tungsten or molybdenum, which
has a much lower conductivity than
those used for primary contacts.
 Normal Condition

Under the normal operating

conditions, these contacts remain
closed and are not open
automatically until and unless the
system becomes faulty.
 Faulty Condition

When a fault occurs on any part of

the system, the trip coils of the
circuit breaker get energized and
the moving contacts are pulled
apart by some mechanism, thus
opening the circuit.
 Arc Phenomenon

When the contacts of a circuit

break are separated under fault
conditions, an arc is struck
between them. The current is thus
able to continue until the discharge
ceases.
 Categories of Arcs
Arcs in the circuit breakers are
categorized as:
High-pressure arcs:
(with ambient pressures of 1 atm and
above)
Vacuum arcs:
(with ambient pressures below 10-4
torr)
 Arc is Useful?
The arc is useful in a way as it provides a
low resistance path for the current after
contact separation. It prevents current
chopping and associated abnormal
switching over-voltages in the system.
The arc provides a gradual, but quick,
transition from the current-carrying to the
current-breaking states of the contacts.
 Arc Extinction

The arc depends upon the following

factors:
Degree of Ionization
Length of the Arc
Cross-section of the Arc
 Classification of Circuit
Breakers

Circuit Breakers

1. Based 3. Based 4. Based

2. Based
on on on
on
Voltage External Interrupti
Location
•Low Design ng Media
•Indoor
•Medium •Dead •Air Blast
•Outdoor
•High/Extra Tank •Oil
High •Live Tank •SF6
•Ultra High •Vacuum
 1. Based on Voltage
On the basis of the voltage levels for
which they are used, the circuit breakers
are classified as:
Category Range of Voltage
Low voltage Less than 1 kV
Medium voltage 1 kV to 52 kV
High/Extra High 66 kV to 765 kV
voltage
Ultra High voltage Above 765 kV
 2. Based on Location

Circuit breakers are, based upon

where they are located, classified
as:

Indoor type
Outdoor type
 3. Based on External Design

From the point of view of their

physical structural design, outdoor
circuit breakers can be identified as
either:
dead tank type
live tank type
 4. Based on Interrupting
Media
The circuit breakers may be classified
into following categories:
Oil Circuit Breakers
Air Circuit Breakers
Air-blast Circuit Breakers
Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6) Circuit
Breakers
Vacuum Circuit Breakers
 1. Oil Circuit Breakers

The circuit breakers in which some insulating oil (i.e.,

transformer oil) is used as an arc quenching medium.
 Arc Extinction in OCBs

The arc extinction is facilitated

mainly by two processes:
 Cont… Arc Extinction in
OCBs

Firstly, the hydrogen gas has

high heat conductivity and
cools the arc, thus aiding the
de-ionization of the medium
between the contacts.
 Cont… Arc Extinction in
OCBs

Secondly, the gas sets up turbulence in

the oil and forces it into the space
between contacts, thus eliminating the
arcing products from the arc path. This
results in extinguishing the arc and as
a result the circuit current is
interrupted.
 Advantages
The oil provides insulation for the
live exposed contacts .
The hydrogen produced during
arcing has excellent cooling
properties and helps extinguish the
arc.
The oil close to the arc region
provides cooling surface.
 Disadvantages
Oil is inflammable and may cause fire
hazards.
The hydrogen, when combined with air,
may form an explosive mixture.
During arcing, oil becomes polluted by
carbon particles, which reduces its
dielectric strength. Hence, it requires
periodic maintenance and replacement.
Types of Oil Circuit Breakers

They can be classified with the

reference to the quantity of oil
used.
Bulk Oil Circuit Breakers
Minimum Oil Circuit Breakers
 Bulk Oil Circuit Breakers

These circuit breakers use

a large quantity of oil.
Cont… Bulk Oil Circuit Breakers

The oil has to serve two purposes:

It extinguishes the arc during opening
of contacts.
It insulates the current conducting parts
from one another and from the earthed
tank.
Minimum Oil Circuit Breakers
These circuit breakers use a
small quantity of oil.
In such circuit breakers, oil is
used only for arc extinction;
the current conducting parts
insulated by air or porcelain or
organic insulating material.
 2. Air-Blast Circuit Breakers

These circuit breakers employ

a high pressure air-blast as an
The contacts are opened in a
flow of air-blast established by
the opening of the blast valve.
arc quenching medium.
 Arc Extiction

The air-blast cools the arc and

sweeps away the arcing
products of the atmosphere.
Consequently, the arc is
extinguished and flow of
current is interrupted.
Air-Blast Circuit Breaker
 Uses of ABCBs

This type of circuit breaker has

been used earlier for open
terminal HV applications, for
voltages of 245 kV, and 400 kV
up to 765 kV, especially where
faster breaker operation was
required.
 Advantages
The risk of fire is eliminated.
The arcing products are completely removed by the blast,
so the expenditure of oil replacement is avoided.
The size of these breakers is reduced.
Due to the rapid growth of the dielectric strength, the
arcing time is also very small. It causes less burning of oil.
The arc energy is also very small fraction of that in oil
circuit breakers.
The arc extinction is facilitate by the high pressure air,
and is independent of the fault current to be interrupted.
 Disadvantages

These circuit breakers are very

sensitive to the variation s in the
rate of rise of restriking voltage.
The air-blast is supplied by the
compressor plant that needs
considerable maintenance.
3. Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6)
Circuit Breakers
In these circuit breakers, Sulpher
hexafluoride gas (SF6) is used as the arc
quenching medium.
The SF6 is an electronegative gas and has a
strong tendency to absorb free electrons.
This loss of conducting electrons in the arc
quickly builds up enough insulation strength
to extinguish the arc.
 Uses of SF6 CBs
These circuit breakers are
available for complete range of
medium voltage and high
voltage application up to 800
kV and above.
This medium is most suitable
for metal-clad and hybrid HV
sub-stations.
 Advantages
Due to the low energy the contact erosion is small.
The gaseous medium SF6 possesses excellent dielectric and
arc quenching properties.
Due to the superior arc quenching property of the SF6 gas,
such circuit breakers have very short arcing time.
Furthermore, they can interrupt much larger current.
These breakers give noiseless operation due to its closed
gas circuit and no exhaust to atmosphere unlike the air-
blast circuit breaker.
The SF6 gas is not inflammable, so there is no risk of fire
and explosion in SF6 breakers.
 Disadvantages
These circuit breakers are expensive due to the
high cost of SF6 gas.
Since SF6 gas has to be reconditioned after
every operation of the breaker, additional
equipment is required for this purpose.
The SF6 gas has been identified as a greenhouse
gas, so can be harmful for population in its area
of operation.
4. Vacuum Circuit Breakers

In these circuit breakers, the

vacuum is used as the arc
quenching medium.
The degree of vacuum in these
circuit breakers is in the range
from 10-7 to 10-5 torr.
Vacuum Circuit Breaker
 Advantages
The vacuum circuit breakers are compact in size and
have longer lives.
Because of the very low voltage across the metal
vapor arc, energy is very low.
There is no generation of gases during and after the
circuit breaker operation.
The outstanding feature of these breakers is that it
can break any heavy fault current perfectly just before
the contacts reach a definite open position.
They can successfully withstand lightning surges.
 5. Air Circuit Breakers

Air circuit breaker is defined as

a circuit breaker, in which the
contacts open and close in air
at atmospheric pressure.
 Arc Interruption
The principles of arc interruption used in an
air circuit breaker are rather different from
those in any other type of circuit breaker.
This can be achieved in three ways:
1. Intense cooling of the arc plasma, so that
the voltage gradient is very high
2. Lengthening the arc path to increase the
arc voltage
3. Splitting up the arc into a number of
series arcs
 Circuit Breakers Ratings

There are three ratings for

breakers as:
Breaking Capacity
Making Capacity
Short-time Rating
 Breaking Capacity
Breaking capacity is defined as
the r.m.s. current that a circuit
breaker is capable of breaking
at given recovery voltage and
under specified conditions (i.e.
power factor, rate of rise of
restriking voltage).
 Cont… Breaking Capacity
It is a common practice to express the breaking
capacity in MVA by taking into account the rated
the rated breaking current and rated service
voltage.
Thus if I is the rated breaking current in Amperes
and the rated service voltage is V in volts, the
breaking capacity for three-phase circuit is:

Breaking Capacity = sqrt 3 x V x I x 10-6

MVA
 Making Capacity
It is the peak value of current
(including d.c. component) during
the first cycle of current wave after
the closure of circuit breaker.
Mathematically stated, making
capacity is given as:

Making Capacity = 2.55 x

symmetrical breaking capacity
 Short-time Rating
The period for which the circuit
breaker is able to carry fault
current while remaining closed is
known as short-time rating.
The short-time rating of a circuit
breaker depends upon its ability to
withstand:
1. The electromagnetic force effects
2. The temperature rise
Thank You … !