Circuit Breakers

03/27/2021 Gyanendra Sharma - NPTI Delhi 1

 What is a circuit breaker?
• General definition by the International
Electrotechnical Commission (IEC):
• “Circuit breakers are mechanical switching
devices, capable of making, carrying and breaking
currents under normal circuit conditions and also
making, carrying for a specified time and breaking
currents under specified abnormal circuit conditions
such as those of a short circuit.
A circuit breaker is usually intended to operate
infrequently, although some types are suitable for
frequent operation."
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 Principle structure of a
vacuum interrupter
1

6 1 Stem / terminal
2 Twist protection
7 3 Metal bellows
4 Interrupter lid
8
5 Shield
6 Ceramic insulator
9 7 Shield
8 Contacts
10 9 Stem
10 Interrupter lid

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 axial magneticGyanendra
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field contacts
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 contacts creating an axial magnetic field.
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 contacts creating a radial magnetic field. The
arc obeys electromagnetic laws, therefore it moves
from the center to the outside of the “petals”.
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contact structures used to create the RMF (spiral and "contrate").
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 types of breaking devices used according to
voltage values.
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vacuum properties as a breaking medium.
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03/27/2021
standardisedGyanendra
definitions of the main types of switchgear
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03/27/2021
vacuum properties as a breaking medium.
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03/27/2021
standardisedGyanendra
definitions of the main types of switchgear
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 The principle of operation is
similar to the air blast
breakers, except that the SF6
gas is not discharged into the
atmosphere.  A closed circuit
completely sealed and self-
contained construction is
used. The equipment consists
of a compressor, a storage
container, a blast valve that
admits gas to the interrupting
chamber, and a filter through
which the exhaust gas is
returned to the compressor.
This is called the double
pressure breaker design.  

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230 kV, 15 GVA, SF6 Double Pressure
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 OCB (Oil Circuit Breaker)
The oil in OCBs serves two purposes. It
insulates between the phases and between
the phases and the ground, and it provides
the medium for the extinguishing of the arc.
When electric arc is drawn under oil, the
arc vaporizes the oil and creates a large
bubble that surrounds the arc. The gas
inside the bubble is around 80% hydrogen,
which impairs ionization. The
decomposition of oil into gas requires
energy that comes from the heat generated
by the arc. The oil surrounding the bubble
conducts the heat away from the arc and
thus also contributes to deionization of the
arc.

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 All three phases are
installed in the same tank.
The tank is made of steel
and is grounded. This type
of breaker arrangement is
called the dead tank
construction. The moving
contact of each phase of
the circuit breaker is
mounted on a lift rod of
insulating material. There
are two breaks per phase
during the breaker opening.
The arc control pots are
fitted over the fixed
contacts. Resistors parallel
to the breaker contacts
Figure 12    Dead Tank Oil Circuit Breaker may be installed alongside
    1    bushing                         6    plunger guide the arc control pots. It is
    2    oil level indicator         7    arc control device customary and convenient
for this type of breakers to
    3    vent                               8    resistor
mount current transformers
    4    current transformer     9   
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plunger bar
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    5    dashpot
Vacuum circuit breakers are used mostly for low and medium voltages. Vacuum interrupting
heads were developed for up to 36 kV per break. For higher voltages, the interrupters are
connected in series.
 
The interrupting chambers of vacuum breakers are made of porcelain and are sealed. They
cannot be open for maintenance. The contact life is expected to be about 20 years, provided
the vacuum is maintained. Because of the high dielectric strength of  vacuum, the
interrupters are small. The gap between the contacts is about 1 cm for 15 kV interrupters, 2
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3 kV interrupters. Gyanendra Sharma - NPTI Delhi 29
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 Pressure spectrogram
• Spectral analysis
of the heating
volume pressure
reveals large
fluctuations over
the entire
bandwidth of the
detection system
(3 dB point at 30
kHz).
• The two vertical
lines are due to
initiation of high
current (left) and
spark gap
discharge
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 Pressure cross correlation
• Two pressure
sensors are used,
displaced 180° in the
heating volume.
• The cross correlation
between those
measurements shows
both stationary and
propagating
structures.
• Negative timelag:
Sensor 1 detects
signal first.
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 Conclusions
• Synthetic tests in power lab allow to mimic a real
circuit breaker environment
• A comprehensive set of diagnostics is used to (i)
derive scaling laws of circuit breaker performance
and (ii) build an improved physical understanding of
the arc interruption processes
• On the diagnostics side, we will focus on the testing
of new pressure sensors, providing more mechanical
stability and a higher frequency response
• Links to computational fluid dynamics simulations:
– Reproduce observed correlations between pressure sensors
using 3D simulations (ongoing)
– Quantify connection between fluctuations in the arcing
zone and heating volume (future)
– Validate turbulence models used in the simulations (future)
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 Electromechanical relays
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The induction disk unit operates on the same principle as induction motor.
The metal disk is mounted on a shaft that can freely rotate. The current coils
are fixed. They create magnetic field that induces eddy currents in the metal
disk. The magnetic field of the eddy currents interacts with the magnetic field
of the stationary coils and produce torque on the disk. The disk and its shaft
rotate and bring the moving contact towards the fixed contact into a closed
position. The motion of the shaft is opposed by a spring that returns the disk
and the moving contact into the open position when the current drops below a
preset value. The time to close the contact depends on the contact travel
distance which is set by a time dial. The pick-up current is adjustable by
selecting current taps on the current coil. The relays are normally available
with three ranges of current taps: 0.5 to 2.0 A, 1.5 to 6.0 A, and 4 to 16 A.
The time dial has usually positions marked from 0 to 10, where for 0 setting
the contact is permanently closed.

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 Electromechanical relays

Voltage from a potential transformer is applied to the lower pole and induced into the
upper poles. The upper poles induce eddy currents in the disc. The torque is produced
by the interaction of the eddy currents and flux from the lower pole. Voltage settings
are adjusted by voltage coil taps. The time settings are adjusted by time dial that
adjusts the travel distance of the moving contact. The moving contact rotates in the
03/27/2021plane. The return torque
horizontal Gyanendra Sharma - by
is provided NPTI
theDelhi
spring acting on the shaft. 46
 87B High Impedance Bus Differential Relay
87G Generator Differential Relay
87T Transformer Differential Relay

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 Where does one use circuit breakers?
12...24 kV 72...800 kV 12...40 kV 110...660 kV
6000...24000 A 2500...4000 A 400...2500 A 10...1250 A
50...500 kA 25...63 kA 20...50 kA 25...100 kA

HV substation MV substation

transformer

MV LV

generation transmission distribution

Values above diagram:

• Top: System voltage
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• Center: Rated current
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• Bottom: Maximal short-circuit current
 • Gas: Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), base
pressure 6 bar

Circuit breaker geometry

• Nozzle material: Poly tetra fluoro ethylene
(PTFE), i.e. Teflon®
• Finger and plug contact material: Copper-
Tungsten (20% Cu, 80% W by weight)

1. Current flows through contacts

2. Plug is mechanically separated from fingers
3. Arc forms between the separated contacts
4. Arc is extinguished at a current zero (CZ) crossing
using a combination
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and turbulence
Delhi 49
 Circuit breaker testing

• Weil-Dobke synthetic test circuit:

1. On the left-hand side of the gas circuit breaker (GCB) to
be tested is the high current part of the circuit. The current
peak is typically 60 kA, frequency 50 Hz.
2. On the right-hand side of the GCB is the high voltage part
of the circuit. The voltage peak is typically 30 kV,
frequency 1 kHz.
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 Pressure band autopower
Top right figure: To enable a
systematic analysis of the pressure
fluctuations, we use the band
autopower, i.e. the frequency
integrated spectrogram vs. time.
For our scaling studies we use the
average band autopower
amplitude.

Bottom left figure: Relative

fluctuation level vs. maximum
heating volume pressure. The red
curve shows the fit

δp/p  pmax0.4.
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 1. High current phase

Top right figure: Current (blue) and

arc voltage (red). The current is
terminated by the vacuum circuit
breaker (VCB) after two half cycles.
The arc voltage displays a positive
extinction voltage and a negative
re-ignition voltage close to the first
CZ crossing.

Bottom left figure: Plug travel (blue)

and heating volume pressure (red).
Contact separation occurs at 5 mm,
vplug = 5.5 m/s. The early pressure
oscillations are due to travelling
waves in the heating volume.

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 2. High voltage phase
1. The spark gap
(SG) is fired just
before CZ and
injects a high
frequency current.
2. When the GCB
interrupts the
injected current, it
is stressed by the
transient recovery The figure shows a „fail/hold“
sequence: The first CZ is a failure to
voltage (TRV) interrupt, whereas the second CZ is a
oscillating in the successful interruption (or hold).
high voltage
circuit across the Gyanendra Sharma - NPTI Delhi
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GCB.
 Circuit breaker performance evaluation
Using the empirical scaling formula

di/dtlimit = di/dtmeasured  (Rmeasured/Rcritical)1/m,

where Rmeasured is the arc resistance 500 ns before CZ, m = 2.8 and
Rcritical is a constant, one can map di/dtmeasured at holds and fails to
di/dtlimit. The figure shows di/dtlimit as
a function of heating volume pres-
sure. The red curve shows the fit

di/dtlimit  p1.0.

However, we expect a p0.4 scaling

based on previous experiments.
Additional measurements will be
added to our analysis to clarify this
issue.
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