HIGH VOLTAGE CIRCUIT-BREAKER TESTING IN ACCORDANCE WITH
NEW USA STANDARD FOR TRANSIENT RECOVERY VOLTAGE
Bart Lageman
KEMA
rnhem
erlands
Abstract-The new USA Standard proposal for Transient Recovery
Voltage ratings for high voltage circuit-breakers requires careful con-
sideration of circuit parameters during testing. The new requirements
can be met partly in simple circuits and completely in a special circuit.
These circuits are described in this paper.
INTRODUCTION
During the sixties many countries developed activities nationally
and internationally to establish specifications for Transient Recovery
Voltage (TRV) ratings for HV power circuit-breakers. These activities
resulted in a new IEC specification which will be accepted by many
countries. In the US also a new specification concerning TRV has been
made. Both specifications are to be edited in the early seventies.
These new specifications fulfil the need of users and manufac-
turers for standardizing power circuit-breakers. Also these specifica-
tions give more guidance to circuit-breaker testing with respect to TRV,
the requirements however are more complicated than in the past.
The authors developed a test circuit diagram that fulfils the new
IEC requirements (Reference 1) and the objective of this paper is to
introduce circuit diagrams which fulfil the requirements of the draft
American National Standard for TRV in the case of terminal faults
at rated short-circuit current for rated voltages of 121 kV and above.
This draft specifies a combination of an exponential wave and a
1-cosine wave (Fig. 1). During a type test the TRV shall meet the rated
TRV wave. In order to take into consideration the capacitance in the
vicinity of a circuit-breaker in the system an initial time delay is
specified.
T2
Fig. 1. Ex-cos TRV curve.
Paper 71 C 57-PWR-7-3, recommended and approved by the Switchgear Com-
mittee of the IEEE Power Engineering Society for presentation at the International
Symposium on High Power Testing, Portland, Ore., July 18-23, 1971. Manuscript
submitted February 16, 1971; made available for printing May 21, 1971.
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Menno N. D. de Vries
Apart from the limitations of testing stations in view of power,
new limitations with respect to the time delay and recovery voltage
depression will be encountered.
The new specified TRV can be approximated in a two-part test,
i.e. in one test series the exponential curve is obtained and in another
test series the 1-cosine curve, both test series with rated maximum
short-circuit current at rated recovery voltage. It is also possible to
approximate the complete ex-cos curve in a more complicated test
circuit.
In the following the circuit diagrams for these cases are described.
To avoid misunderstanding, however, the authors felt that discussion
of the definitions of the TRV wave would be recommendable.
DEFINITIONS
In Fig. 1 the exponential and 1-cosine curve are drawn.
E2 is the crest voltage of the 1-cos curve.
T2 is the time at which E2 occurs.
E1 is the crest value of the 60 Hz recovery voltage, this is the asymp-
tote of the exponential curve.
R is a straight line through the inflection point of the ex curve, this
line indicates the maximum rate of rise.
T1 is the time delay, this is the time to the intersection point of line R
and the time axis.
For rating purposes R is defined as in Fig. 2, where the capaci-
tance in the vicinity of the circuit-breaker is neglected and consequently
the maximum rate of rise occurs at t = 0.
It is quite obvious that in any circuit where the time delay is met
the actual maximum rate of rise, (Fig. 1) is allowed to be smaller than
kV
AlS
Fig. 2. Exponential curve.
the rated rate of rise (Fig. 2). The amount of reduction is discussed
later in this paper.
Furthermore it is quite clear that due to damping and depression
the 1-cos wave obtained in a laboratory will deviate considerably from
the theoretical 1-cos curve.
to the standard, the curve obtained with a series damping resistor ex-
hibits an overshoot. The maximum rate of rise and initial time delay are
equal in both cases.

TWO-PART TESTS kV

The new IEC specification allows a two-part test in case the com-
plete TRV wave cannot be obtained in one test circuit. If this method
is used then effectively the test duty is carried out twice with the same
RMS values of short-circuit current and recovery voltage with the first
and second part of TRV respectively.
The new Standard and existing specification ASA C 37.09 do not
specifically refer to such a test procedure, but it seems that such a two-
part test is not in conflict with the specification either.

Fig. 5. TRV curves.

a. series damping.
b. parallel damping.

Fig. 3. Circuit with series damping resistor.

Fig. 4. Circuit with parallel damping resistor.
The exponential curve can be obtained in the short-circuit lab'ora-
tory in two ways, i.e. with a damping resistor in series with a capac:itor
connected in parallel to the tested breaker (Fig. 3) or a resistor onlly in
parallel to the breaker (Fig. 4). In both cases the resistor valuLe is
calculated with the formula:
du/dt
R1 = R2 = (1)
In a short circuit laboratory the recovery voltage of the first
quarter cycle is reduced due to depression. This is a well-known phe-
nomenon in laboratories equiped with generators and transformers. This
phenomenon occurs to a less extent in system laboratories equiped
with transformers only (Reference 2 and 3).
The overshoot of curve a, Fig. 5 offers the possibility to compen-
sate the depression in a very cheap way. In the case of curve b depres-
sion can only be compensated by a higher applied voltage, i.e. a higher
power which is expensive.
In case the depression is such that the overshoot demonstrated in
Fig. 5 is still too low, then capacitor C1 can be reduced. In Fig. 6 the
effect of this reduction is shown. Since the resistor R1 is kept constant,
the initial rate of rise does not change.
In practice also some natural damping exists in the laboratory,
usually, if no damping resistors would be inserted the transient oscilla-
tion of the recovery voltage would have an amplitude factor of
1,8 - 1,9.
This natural damping can be represented by a parallel damping re-
sistor. In order to compensate this damping and to obtain the correct
rate of rise in both cases R1 or R2 has to be increased (Fig. 3 and 4).

di/dt
where du/dt is the rated transient recovery voltage rate and di/ dt is
the unmodified rate of decay of the rated symmetrical short-ciu rcuit
current at interruption. In the circuit of Fig. 3 the capacitor C'1 is
calculated with the formula:

R 2 Z =
2V t (2)
where L is the selfinductance of the circuit.
In both circuits of Fig. 3 and 4 the capacitance C2 which is respon-
sible for the time delay tl, is calculated with the formula:

T1 1 T1
(3)
R1 R2
The curves of both circuits are somewhat different, see Fig. 5.
The curve obtained with a parallel damping resistor is exactly according Fig. 6. Effect of constant R1 and variable C1 of circuit of Fig. 3.
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In the case of Fig. 3 the capacitor C 1 has to be decreased accordingly in
order to keep the overshoot consistent.
Another advantage of the series damping resistor is the smaller
amount of energy which is injected in the resistor by the recovery
voltage. It can be derived that in the voltage range 765 kV to 121 kV
2
2,6 64
P1
where P1 and P2 are the power injected in R1 and R2 respectively.
A disadvantage of the series damping is that a capacitor bank is
required, however a short-circuit laboratory is equiped with an adequate
capacitor bank anyway.
For the very high voltages the ratio P2/PI becomes small and the
capacitance C1 in case of series damping becomes extremely big, in that
case it may be more suitable to use the parallel damping circuit, subject
to depression and available power.
The second part of the TRV is obtained in a circuit which pro-
duces a 1-cos curve with the specified values for E2 and T2. This tran-
sient recovery wave is quite different from the 1-cos curve as defined in
Fig. 2. The necessary damping can be obtained either by a series or a
parallel resistor.
Usually little damping has to be applied since the depression and
natural damping reduce the first crest considerably.
It should be mentioned that the capacitance to control the time to
peak T2 is much smaller than the capacitor in the circuit of Fig. 3 for
the exponential curve.
CHECKING THE TRV DURING TEST
In practice due to depression, natural damping and eventually
superimposed oscillations the TRV curve may deviate appreciably from
the ideal rated ex-cos curve therefore it is necessary to compare also an
intermediate point of the test TRV.
It would be helpful to know the rate of rise taking into account
the influence of the time delay, and also the coordinates of the inter-
section point of the exponential and the 1-cosine wave (point S in
Fig. 1). These values are calculated and laid down in the table. Also in
this table the actual time delay is given, this time delay is smaller than
the rated time delay although the capacitance responsible for the time
delay is calculated with the formula (3). This formula however is an
approximation and not a true mathematical representation of TI.
It is interesting to note that the rate of rise of the TRV is 91-95%
of the rated rate and that the voltage coordinate of the intersection
point is almost equal to the RMS value of the rated maximum voltage.
TEST CIRCUIT WITH EX-COS CURVE
To avoid the complication of the two-part test, i.e. repetition of
the test series with eventually a preceding circuit-breaker overhaul it
may be desirable to use a test circuit that produces an ex-cos TRV
at once.
Also it may be desirable to obtain the complete ex-cos TRV in
one test series to avoid discussions as to whether it is permissible to
carry out a two-part test with respect to circuit-breaker sensitivity to
the TRV.
Naef et al announced in 1965 (Reference 4) that according to
manufacturers an ex-cos TRV can be produced in the laboratory. How-
ever so far no practical solutions have been published.
A practical solution seems easy to find since only an artificial line
with an open end should be connected in parallel to the circuit-breaker.
However this produces a reflected wave with a too high peak E2 and
rate of rise. After an extensive study it was found that the artificial line
should be terminated with a series connection of a capacitor and re-
sistor (Fig. 7) such that the reflected wave approximates the rated
ex-cos curve.
In Fig. 8a two TRV curves are drawn for different values of
Rp.
The approximation of the lower curve to the rated curve is very satis-

Ex-cos curve details

Rated Rated Rated Rated Rated Rated calculated values

max. short time crest delay rate
voltage circuit to point voltage time delay max time to co 5rdinates
current at point time du/dt inflec- of ex-cos
P P tion intersection
l T2 | E2 Ti R point point S
kV RMS kA RMS | /US /uS kV/uS 7/Us| kV//euS
kV /uS /uS kV
121 20 276 213 2.9 1.7 2.35 1.56 10.4 153 123
121 40 258 213 2.9 1.8 2.33 1.64 10.2 141 122
121 63 252 213 2.9 1.8 2.33 1.64 10.2 137 121
145 20 331 255 3.2 1.7 2.61 1.56 11.7 182 147
145 40 310 255 3.2 1.8 2.59 1.65 11.5 171 147
145 63 302 255 3.2 1.8 2.59 1.65 11.5 165 145
145 80 298 255 3.2 1.8 2.59 1.65 11.5 162 143
169 16 396 297 3.4 1.7 2.80 1.57 12.7 220 174
169 31.5 369 297 3.4 1.8 2.74 1.66 12.5 204 173
169 40 361 297 3.4 1.8 2.74 1.66 12.5 197 171
169 50 357 297 3.4 1.8 2.74 1.66 12.5 195 170
242 31.5 529 425 4.1 1.8 3.41 1.68 15.7 291 248
242 40 517 425 4.1 1.8 3.41 1.68 15.7 284 244
242 63 503 425 4.1 1.8 3.41 1.68 15.7 274 242
362 40 773 620 4.9 1.8 4.20 1.69 19.8 423 365
550 40- 1325 968 5.4 1.6 4.80 1.53 24.0 729 554
765 40 1531 1345 7.9 1.9 6.90 1.80 33.5 834 765
Calculated values for first phase to clear.
First phase to clear factor 1,5.

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 and rate of decay of the current in formula (4) are defined as for
formula (1).
The other line components are:

du/dt
R9 = 1,15. di/dt (6)

Fig. 7. Circuit which produces approximation to ex-cos TRV.

C9= 295.C2 8 (7)

kV R1 = 0159E*foLt (8)

In formula (7) C2. *8 is- the individual capacitance of a section. In

formula (8) f is the natural frequency of the inductance LI alone, the
resistor RI has to damp completely the natural frequency of this in-
ductance which would otherwise disturb the initial TRV. A capacitor
at the beginning of the line would have the same result, however this
capacitor would increase the time delay considerably.
In the circuit of Fig. 7 the time delay of the initial TRV is con-
trolled by Cs:

CS Ts '
=
z
(9)

F2 8 f 1tiS where Z is given in (4). In Fig. 7 Rp represents the natural damping of

Fig. 8a. TRV of circuit of Fig. 7. the circuit and eventual necessary additional. damping in order to obtain
the correct E2. In case no depression and no natural damping would be
present the value of Rp is:

kV du/dt
R1P = 4. (10)
di/dt
In order to compensate the natural damping Rp has to increased, Rp
can be increased further or completely taken away to compensate the
depression. In any case the resistor Rp if any, the resistor representing
natural damping and the surge impedance of the line have to be con-
sidered as a parallel connection of impedances of which the resulting
value is equal to:

du/dt
di/dt
This means that in practice the surge impedance of the artificial line is
higher depending on laboratory characteristics.
Fig. 8b. Initial TRV of curve of Fig. 8a. The space between the two curves of Fig. 8a is the margin avail-
able for compensation of depression. In general this will not be suffici-
factory. The initial part of the lower curve is drawn in Fig. 8b, the ent so compensation has to be found in a higher applied recovery
time delay corresponds with the rated time delay. The curves of Fig. 8 voltage.
are calculated with a digital computer. Verification in a real test circuit The capacitance C2 (Figs. 3 and 4) or Cs (Fig. 7) determines the
gave the same results. time delay. In most cases the natural capacitance of the transformers in
The values of the capacitances and inductances of the artificial a laboratory is smaller than C2 or Cs, so some additional capacitance
line are determined by two facts: may be inserted. In some cases however, for instance at high voltage
and low current the natural capacitance may be too high. In such
/i du/dt cases reduction of the effective capacitance is obtained by grounding
the middle point of the transformers instead of one of the terminals.
AIC di/dt(4

C (5) Special Case

In both formulae L and C are the total inductance and ctRpacitance of For those circuit-breakers which are not or little sensitive to the
the artificial line excluding the capacitance Cg. The rate of rise of TRV rate of rise up to the crest value a way out may be to leave out the
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the resistor R2 of the circuit in Fig. 4 completely. If C2 is calculated
with formula (3) the time delay will be correct, the time to crest will be
only 18% of rated T2.
The very short time to crest implies that the transient voltage
reaches the stationary lower level of E1 long before T2. Some breakers
are more sensitive to a long time to crest than to a short time to crest
(Reference 5) so that in these cases such a test is disputable.
Very high rated voltage
At very high rated maximum voltages, i.e. 550 kV and 765 kV
another effect has to be compensated to obtain the correct crest voltage
E2. At the time T2 for 550 kV and 765 kV the instantaneous values of
the power frequency recovery voltage are 88 and 84% respectively of
the crest value E1 of the power frequency recovery voltage. (Fig. 9)
In the test with the 1-cos curve of a two-part test, the crest value
of the TRV is thus reduced by depression, natural damping and inherent
decay of the 60 Hz curve. It is questionable if this could be sufficiently
compensated by leaving away any other damping. In the circuit of Fig. 7
compensation is only possible by increasing the power frequency wave.
Ps
Fig. 9. 1-cos TRV for rated maximum voltage 765 kV.
On the other hand it seems questionable if this decay of the power
frequency recovery voltage has not been overlooked when values for E2
were proposed, as was the case in the IEC draft for TRV. (Reference 1)
CONCLUSION
It is possible to obtain accurate TRV curves in the laboratory in
two-part tests, however the price to be paid is more tests and con-
sequently more testing time.
It is also possible to obtain an ex-cos TRV curve in a more com-
plicated test circuit, in this case the price to be paid is to apply a higher
voltage and consequently higher power.
So in any case the new TRV ratings involve more testing effort.
REFERENCES
[1] B. Lageman and M. N. D. de Vries, "Circuit for testing H.V.
breakers", Electrical Times, 19th February 1970.
[2] J. S. Vosper, "Short time reactances of a generator", Technical
Report G/T 323 of ERA.
[3] N. M. Tchernyshev et al, "Experimental determination of restrik-
ing voltage on circuit-breakers in power transformer circuits",
Cigre Report No. 138, 1966.
[41 0. Naef et al, "Proposed Transient Recovery voltage Ratings for
Power Circuit-Breakers", IEEE Transactions on power apparatus
and systems July 1965, pp. 580-608.
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[5] B. J. Calvino and A. Formica, "Behaviour of circuit-breakers in
case of a fault in a circuit with a high natural frequency", Cigre
Report 131, 1964.
Discussion
J. E. Beehler (American Electric Power Service Corporation, New York,
N.Y. 10004): The author has described a test circuit to produce an
ex-cos TRV as described in a soon-to-be-published American National
Standard. The work in this area is very timely and is greatly appreciated.
The two part test suggested by the author as a means of satisfying
TRV requirements has not been excluded in the soon-to-be-published
American National Standard.
The test circuit described to produce the ex-cos wave appears to
be the equivalent circuit of the source side of a faulted breaker. In
Figure 7 of the author's paper (Ls) is the active source inductance,
(Cs), represents the capacitance of the bus, and connected apparatus
capacitances, (Rp) the surge impedance of the connected lines from
which no transients have yet returned, and on the right hand side of
the breaker in the Figure 7, is the transient representation of the short-
est connected line upon which the first transient returns. This test
circuit should therefore produce the ex-cos wave.
When deliberating the test wave for the TRV Standard, the IEEE
Working Group on Transient Recovery Voltages chose the ex-cos wave
shape as the one which more nearly represents system conditions. At
the time, concern was expressed about the differentce in the areas be-
tween the ex-cos TRV and the 4 parameter TRV as possibly imposing
a more severe requirement on a breaker under test than the TRV's
produced by the system. The ex-cos wave shape therefore was selected
to represent a minimum boundary above which the prospective test
wave should remain. This boundary, therefore does not exclude the
4 parameter test method nor does it eliminate other test circuits that
produce different wave forms for example an exponential wave that
remains outside the boundary would also satisfy the TRV test re-
quirement.
The author made comment about the magnitude of the exponen-
tial driving voltage E1 of the ex-cos wave. T-his voltage was originally
lower in magnitude in the original proposals but was increased to the
magnitude approximating the low frequency recovery voltage magni-
tude. This was done to simplify the TRV testing when using direct
testing, inasmuch as only one, not two, voltage level would be re-
quired. This increase in E1 value therefore would require a reduction in
the reflected E2 value as the author has found:
One probTem that has been discussed and compromised by the
Working Group is that of the relations between the energy of the test
circuit and the test breaker capability to modify the TRV as compared
to the energy of a power system and the breakers capability to modify
the TRV. Since the proposed test circuit appears to represent actual
system parameters would the author care to comment on the relation-
ship between the breaker on a system as compared to a breaker using
this test circuit.
My final comment is in relation to the values proposed for the
765 kV breakers. These values are extrapolated values. Now since there
is a 765 kV system to check these values perhaps revision will be
required.
I request the author to also include in his paper the oscillograms
and comments on other difficulties within the soon-to-be-published
American Standards relating to test record interpretations given in
his presentation.
Manuscript received August 2, 1971.
V. N. Narancic (Hydro-Quebec Institute of Research, Varennes, P.Q.,
Canada): The authors are to be commended on their very interesting
study of testing in accordance with USA standards.
We, too, at the Hydro-Quebec Research Institute have undertaken
a study of testing according to the new USA standard for circuit break-
ers. In our test circuit, however, we placed the control on the upstream
Manuscript received August 11, 1971.
side of the circuit breaker. Our work is not yet terminated but we hope
it will be published in the near future.
I would like to make just a few remarks on this paper and on
USA standards.:
1. The definition of the time delay in the USA standard has not been
clearly established whereas, if the greatest accuracy is to be obtained in
determining the initial part of TRV in test stations, a more precise
definition is essential.
2. We too found that for TRV of 500 kV or over, account must also
be taken of the reduction of the normal frequency component.
3. As far as the numerical values of the time delay of the USA stand-
ard are concerned, we are of the opinion that they are a true representa-
tion of an actual system. However, in all cases, there is difficulty in
obtaining this small time delay since the so-called parasite capacitance
in test stations is often higher than in the actual system.
I would like to ask Mr. Lageman if it is always possible to obtain
these small values of the time delay using the test circuit described in
his paper. The values of the USA time delay are twice small as those of
the IFC four-parameter curves, as can be seen from the figure below.
This ratio is practically the same for all other rated voltages.
Fred Chambers (Tennessee Valley Authority, Chattanooga, Tenn.
37401): It is fortunate that the authors have been able to develop a
circuit which will produce the proposed USA standard ex-cosine type
envelope with one test. They are correct in that a statement in refer-
ence 4 of their paper indicates that the ex-cosine curve can be pro-
duced in the laboratory; however, we have yet to see a laboratory
reproduce this curve successfully in a single test. While we agree that
the 2-part test is probably acceptable under the USA proposed stand-
ard, the necessity for two separate procedures greatly increases the
time and expense required to completely test a circuit breaker.
-
Fig. 3E. Designation by 4parameters s
0 ti t t2 t (,O s)
Fig. 3E. Designation by 4 parameters of an inherent test TRV.
Manuscript received August 16, 1971.
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The IEC 4-parameter method for defining TRV envelope is illus-
trated on the attached figure, which is taken from a preliminary copy
of IEC document 17A (Secretariat) 86. We have wondered if there
should be some limitations on the permissible excursions of the TRV
envelope in the negative direction. For example, at point X on the
figure the stress across the breaker contacts is appreciably lower than
at the points of tangency, and could conceivably be virtually zero
without violating the requirements of the standard.
The USA proposed standard states simply that the rated transient
recovery voltage shall be defined as the envelope formed by the ex-
ponential-cosine curve. This has been interpreted by some to mean that
the actual TRV envelope shall lie entirely above the rated ex-cosine
curve. The authors' thoughts on this point would be appreciated.
The meaning of "depression" as used to refer to the 1-cosine curve
obtained in a laboratory on page 2 is not quite clear. We assume "damp-
ing" and "depression" refer to the decay of both DC and AC com-
ponents which occur in any ordinary generator.
John F. Szablya (Washington State University, Pullman, Wash. 99163):
My remarks concern in general about the transient recovery voltage.
If one analyzes the transient recovery voltage using a correct smooth
(distributed parameter) line approach, instead of lumped parameter
approximations, one ends up with wave shapes which do not even re-
semble the ones obtained by the latter method.(l) (2)
One has a feeling that the reason for still using lumped parameter
techniques lie in the inability of instruments to display true wave shapes.
Not too long time ago 2 kHz bandwidth was the most we could hope
for and the 10 kHz range was "state of the art". However, today 2 MHz
instrumentation is not an unreasonable dream. I am sure we may be in
for some surprises.
I would be very much interested in the authors', and maybe
others', comments.
REFERENCES
[1] "A Method of Analysis of the Transient Behaviour of a Terminated
Power Transmission Line", K. S. Julien, I. F. Szablya. IEEE Paper
No. 31 PP 67-113. Presented at the IEEE Winter Power Meeting,
New York, New York, February 2, 1967.
[21 "A Comparison Between Mathematical Model Representation and
Analog Simulation of a Power Transmission Line under Transient
Conditions", K. S. Julien. IEEE Paper No. 31 PP 67-114. Pre-
sented at the IEEE Winter Power Meeting, New York, New York,
February 2, 1967.
Manuscript received October 5, 1971.
G. N. Lester (Allis Chalmers, Boston, Mass. 02136): During the Sym-
posium there have been many interesting papers on all aspects of high
power testing of circuit breakers. They have tended to concentrate
largely on the more "exotic" areas of testing- such as synthetic testing
arrangements, and TRV's for short line fault tests.
In the presentations there has been virtually no mention of varia-
bility, or of having significant control, beyond simple control of natural
frequency, of source side TRV to meet particular requirements such as
the "exponential - cosine" wave shape specified in the new American
National Standard C37.072.
This paper therefore, becomes particularly significant and the
authors and KEMA are to be commended for this work. As a user of
the KEMA short circuit test facility since 1953 we welcome the pos-
sibility to have tests with TRV meeting the "ex-cos" shape, in a single
test operation.
It is requested that the authors show some oscillograms of TRV
waves from the circuit they have described to better illustrate a com-
parison with the requirements of C37.072.
The requirements of C37.072 are defined as being for the inherent
TRV, or for the circuit without the breaker. On the basis that the lab
test circuit can be adjusted to produce the required inherent TRV, the
author's comment would be appreciated on the expected response of
the test circuit compared with an actual power system for a circuit
breaker having opening resistors.
Manuscript received September 1, 1971.
Bartel Lageman and Menno N. D. de Vries: Mr. Beehler has put forward
the question whether a circuit-breaker in the system would act the
same as a circuit-breaker tested in our proposed circuit, in both cases
the inherent TRV being the same.
It is my opinion that if the TRV in two circuits is exactly the same
and if the RMS value of the interrupted current and the RMS value of
the recovery voltage are the same as well, the frequency response of the
circuits are exactly the same also. That means that the circuit-breaker
interaction with the circuit, whether system or laboratory, should give
the same result. This opinion is supported by many papers concerning
synthetic and direct comparison tests.
As requested by Mr. Beehler, I want to draw the attention to diffi-
culties encountered when evaluating test oscillograms, which I also did
during my presentation of our paper.
With the circuit of figure 7 actual tests have been carried out with
an airblast breaker. Figure 10 shows the oscillogram of the TRV. The
test engineer is able to insert the point S, the intersection of the expo-
nential curve and the 1-cos curve. He can also check point P. However,
he is not quite sure whether the TRV between points S and P is too
high or too low. And lengthy discussions may develop with the manu-
facturer as to whether the voltage is correct. Checking intermediate
points is a time consuming job as well. In figure 11 the first part of the
same TRV curve is recorded. This record is made with a capacitor injec-
tion and the circuit is interrupted by a very fast diode. So the TRV
should approximate correctly the inherent (unmodified by the
breaker) TRV.
k are completely damped out by the interaction of the circuit breaker
Fig. 10. Test With A.N.S.I. T.R.V.
A
kV
Tst.
Fig. 1 1. A.N.S.I. T.R.V. of a Test Circuit Obtained By Injection.
Manuscript received September 2, 1971.
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The line R can be drawn and also the points Tl and Ti (time to
inflection). It is visible on this record that the rate of rise is somewhat
too high, also the time delay is shorter than allowed, those values can
be corrected.
It is difficult again to check intermediate values between the line
R and the intersection point S and also here discussions may occur.
It may be concluded from these oscillograms that the evaluation
of this type of TRV according to the new standards is a very delicate
matter.
Mr. Narancic said that the definition of the time delay in the
American standard proposal is not clear. I do not agree. The definition
in itself does not leave any space for confusion, although it is very
difficult to evaluate a test oscillogram if details are not known. That is
why we calculated the time to the inflection point, making use of the
formulae for TRV representation in the American Standard proposal
itself. In a test oscillogram the rate line can be drawn and the TRV is
allowed to cross this line from the time of the inflection. The time
co-ordinate of the inflection point is given in the table for the various
rated voltages in our paper.
I agree with Mr. Narancic that the time delay in microseconds of
the USA proposal is about 2/3 of the time delay proposed by IEC. We
already mentioned that the correct time delay cannot be obtained in all
cases depending on the rated voltage and rated current of the circuit
breaker and the properties of the testing laboratory. So consequently
the time delay cannot be met in a few more cases when testing accord-
ing to ANSI than when testing according to IEC.
To Mr. Szablya I can say that distributed parameters in the system
are not so evenly distributed as is supposed, and in the laboratory the
lumped parameters are not that lumped as we would like them to be.
The beginning of a line has always more capacitance than the remainder
of a line per unit length, further the line parameters are not consistent
because of the sag of the line and the proximity of the line to the
poles. In the laboratory capacitors always have some self-inductance
and self-inductances have some capacitance, which may cause spurious
oscillations of high frequencies. We found that in practice in a labora-
tory very high frequency and low amplitude oscillations may occur,
although these oscillations do not show up during a test, because they
arc. Also spurious oscillations may' occur in the real system which do
not appear when measured during interruption of the short circuit for
the same reason.
We have been measuring TRV for many years with 1 MHz equip-
ment and so far we did not have any unexpected surprises. In any case
in our proposed circuit we introduce a distributed parameter circuit, so
in this respect there is some more similarity to the practical conditions.
The answer to the question of Mr. Lester is already partly covered
by my answer to Mr. Beehler. As far as the transient conditions are
concerned our proposed circuit should respond the same as a system
in which the inherent TRV is the same. As far as the response to the
load of a resistor is concerned, both the test circuit and the system
should react the same if the direct power source has the same im-
pedance. Since the interrupted short circuit current should be the same
and the power frequency recovery voltage should be the same, there
'should be not any discrepancy between a system test and a labora-
tory test.
I agree with Mr. Chambers that when testing according to IEC
parameters it is allowed that the TRV has considerable "valleys" which
stresses the breaker much less than in the case when the TRV would
follow the envelope line. In the laboratory or in the system, however,
these "valleys" do not occur to the same extent as is shown in the
figure in the IEC document, and certainly the bottom of the valley will
not touch the zero line. So far we have interpreted the American stand-
ard proposal such that the inherent TRV of the test circuit shall be at
least equal to the specified TRV, i.e. at no point the test circuit TRV
shall be lower than the inherent TRV. But I admit that maybe this
interpretation has not been intended by the members of the Working
Group who established this new standard proposal. I cannot give an
answer to this question at this time.
On page 2 of our paper we referred to damping and depression in
the case of the 1-cos wave. With damping we mean the natural damping
of the test circuit, i.e. if there would be no additional resistance or
damping, then the oscillation would be damped out in approximately 5
to 10 cycles. This damping always exists. It cannot be reduced, because
it is a property of the insulation of the laboratory altogether. Also iron
losses of power transformers, potential transformers and generators are
involved.
Depression is meant to be the reduction of the power frequency
recovery voltage which particularly generators demonstrate. This phe-
nomenon is described in the Reference 2. This depression is a voltage
reduction which disappears with time constants about the same as the
sub-transient and the transient time constant of the generators. Also
transformers exhibit this phenomenon to a smaller extent (Reference 3).
So the depression reduces the level about which the TRV is going to
swing and the damping is reducing the overshoot beyond this level.