EEE 471 Switchgear and Protection (Credit: 3.

0)
Lecture 2, Version 1, Date: July 17, 2018
Presented by: Nur Mohammad
https://classroom.google.com/ Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
Class code: ndpkocx Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology,
Chittagong-4349
Learning Objectives/Scope
 Introduction to circuit interruption
 Circuit-breaker switching
 Arc phenomena

 Questions/Answers
 Q1. Explain circuit interruption?
 Q2. Define transient recovery voltage?
 Q3. With sketch describe arc phenomena
1
IEEE 471 Switchgear and Protection Syllabus
Purpose of power system protection, Introduction to circuit interruption and
protection. Terminologies and general characteristics of relays and breakers.
Circuit breakers: control systems, arc extinction, recovery voltage. Air, oil,
air blast, vacuum, SF6 and high voltage DC circuit breakers. Selection criteria, testing
of circuit breakers. Relays: overcurrent, directional, differential, distance, sequence,
pilot-wire and carrier current protection. Busbar arrangement, grounding. Unit
protection: generator, motor, transformer, bus and line protection.
Static Relays: Introduction to Analogue and Digital static relays. Static overcurrent,
differential and distance protection.
Microprocessor based relays.

EEE 472 Switchgear and Protection Sessional (Credit: 0.75)

Experiments based on syllabus of EEE 471

Suggested Reading:
1) Sunil S. Rao, Switchgear Protection and Power System, Khanna, 2003, 2010.
2) http://www.skm-eleksys.com/2011

2
Circuit Interruption/Breaker Switching
 The main function of the circuit breaker is to  The breaker can be operated by a substation
break and make the circuit. So theoretically personnel by pressing the button at the control room.
a circuit breaker is a switch.
But during the fault condition it trips automatically.
 The breaker is rated and capable to make,
carry and break load current during normal  From the figure it is clear that the breaker trip circuit
operation and interrupt large fault current in can be closed by closing of either of the contacts C1
abnormal conditions. or C2.
 When fault in the line takes place, the fault  While C1 is for manual closing by pressing the button
current associates with the secondary current at the control panel, the C2 is closed automatically by
in current transformer (CT).
the relay for over current condition sensed by CT.
 This will actuate the relay and relay contact
closes. Now as the tripping circuit of the  These two contacts in parallel fulfil the logic OR
breaker is complete, the trip coil is function.
energized.  The trip circuit is supplied with DC battery source.
 The energized trip coil initiates breaker Independent AC source may be used for trip circuit.
mechanism by displacing a moving contact
away from fixed contact.
 The Arc formed between the moving contact
and fixed contact is extinguished by breaker
arc extinguishing mechanism.

Breaker-Tripping Circuit
(manual and automatic
closing contacts)
3
Circuit-Breaker Switching
 From the above discussion and the figure, we observed that the circuit breaker functioning is
comprised of three main components.

 1) Sensing and tripping circuit

 2) Operating mechanism
 3) Arc interruption

 For high voltage breaker, the fault sensing device is placed outside the circuit breaker
where as in case of low voltage breaker the sensing device is accommodated within the
breaker enclosure.
 During separation of moving contact from fixed contact, electric arc is produced between the
contacts.
 The arc extinguishing is the most important part of breaker functioning, which greatly
influences the breaker design.
 Actually in low and medium voltage case, the arc extinction is not of much problem.
 The arc extinguishing is a difficult task in HV and EHV or UHV circuit and is the primary
concern for breaker design.
 The energy stored in the line/circuit inductance is dissipated in the arc and the arc is
required to be extinguished reliably.

4
Switching and Arcing in Circuit-Breaker
 After a circuit breaker is closed or opened the Fig: Circuit breaker switching
configuration of the system changes.
 For example by opening a breaker a part of the
network may be de-energized or isolated or a
load may be disconnected.
 On occurrence of fault, the trip signal
initiates breaker mechanism, the breaker
contacts separate, and arc is formed between
the contacts.
 The arc is extinguished at current zero of
its sinusoidal waveform. But there are
chances of re-striking.
 In the equivalent circuit shown in Fig-A, L is the
equivalent inductance of the line which may
include the transformer reactance up to the
breaker.
Fig-A: Equivalent circuit and faults.
 The line resistance being small is neglected.
5
Equivalent Circuit of Breaker Operation
 The C is the equivalent capacitance at the breaker
terminal towards source side.
 The capacitance is mainly due to the equipment
bushings.
 When the arc between the breaker poles is
extinguished, another capacitance between the poles
exist. Fig-A: Representation of equivalent
 Let a fault happens at the load end as shown. The fault circuit and fault.
is dead short circuit (shown by double headed
arrow).
 The breaker receives a trip signal, the tripping
mechanism operates and the breaker moving
contact starts moving away from the fixed contact.
 An arc is formed between the contacts. The fault
current is fed through the arc as long as arc exist.
Fig-B(i): Equivalent circuit and
 Being a dead short circuit the fault resistance is
fault current during arcing.
assumed zero. The equivalent circuit of this faulted
case is redrawn as in Fig-B(i).
6
Equivalent Circuit of Breaker Operation
 After the point of arc extinction, (after point O
in Fig-C) the circuit is given in Fig-B(ii) with the
direction of current shown.
 In this new configuration, the voltage across the
capacitance is the same as the voltage across the
breaker terminals tries to approach the system Fig-B(ii): Current flow just after
voltage by flow of current through the inductance interruption of arc.
and capacitance.
 The voltage across the breaker poles approaches
the system voltage in an oscillatory manner (See
Fig-C) due to the formation of series LC circuit
 As already said at point 'O' current is zero and arc
is extinguished. Before point 'O' the voltage
across the poles (same as arc voltage) being
negligibly small is shown zero.
 After final arc extinction and final current zero, a
high voltage wave appears across the circuit- Fig-C: Illustration of system voltage,
breaker contacts tending to reestablish the arc. fault current and recovery voltage.
7
Transient Recovery Voltage
 The voltage across the poles of the  Look at figure-C how the voltage
breaker after arc extinction is called as across the poles (violet) approaches
the recovery voltage. system voltage.
 The transient part just after current  Due to the low values of both L and C
zero is called as Transient Recovery the frequency of oscillation is very
Voltage (TRV)/Restriking Voltage. high in comparison to power
 The TRV influence the behavior of frequency at 60 Hz or 50 Hz.
the circuit-breakers and associated
equipments.
 The TRV comprises a high
frequency transient component
superimposed on a power
frequency voltage
 After the transient vanishes within few
microseconds the voltage across the
poles is called Recovery Voltage
which is at power frequency. Fig-C: Illustration of system voltage,
fault current and recovery voltage.
8
RRRV, What is it. Why it is a matter
 The amplitude of oscillation of the transient
dies out gradually.
 Gradual die out of transient is called damping
which is due to the presence of the small
line/equipment resistance.
 It is observed that the voltage increases
very rapidly from zero to first peak.
 Rate of Rise of Restriking Voltage (RRRV):
the ratio of peak value of restriking voltage to Fig-C: Illustration of system voltage,
time taken to reach to peak value. fault current and recovery voltage.
 If the rate at which the dielectric strength
developed between the contacts is greater than NB: Some of the
the RRRV, then the arc will be extinguished. mathematical treatment
can be found in article 3.10
 RRRV =de/dt, where e=restriking voltage
and examples 3.3 -3.8
 Unit (volts/µsec)

9
Arc Phenomena
 As the moving contact starts
moving away from the fixed
contact, the contact area of the
tips of both moving contact and
fixed contact reduces.
 But the same current now passes
through this reduced contact area.
 The current density of the contact
area increases very much. This
situation makes the areas of the
tips in contact very hot, may be
several thousand degrees celsius.
Fig-A: Formation of arc when circuit
 Now as the contacts just separate
is broken by moving away the moving
these hot spots becomes source
of electron emission. contact from the fixed contact.
 High energy electrons are emitted
from the separated contact tips.
This is called thermionic emission.

10
Arc Phenomena
 The other main cause of electron emission is field
emission.
 As the movable contact moves away from the
fixed contact, voltage difference between the two
electrodes (fixed and moving contacts) exist (Fig-
B). Which gives rise to an electric field
between the electrodes.
 When the movable contact has not moved much
away, then d is small so the electric field strength
is very high (order of several kV per millimetre).
 High electric field gives rise to emission of high
energy electrons from the contact surface.
 The high speed electrons emitted bombard the
molecule or atoms of the medium and dislodge
electrons from the atoms. This is secondary
emission.
 The high energy electrons so emitted ionise the
gas or oil used as medium. Arc plasma is formed
between the fixed and moving contacts.
11
The V is the voltage difference
V
E
d
Fig-B: Electric
field between
the contacts.
(the arc is not
shown).
- The current continues to flow through the
arc plasma between the contacts.
- The arc is required to be
extinguished. More importantly the
dielectric strength of the medium
between the fixed and moving contacts
should be restored quickly, otherwise arc
may re-strike between the contacts.
- This is the job of the arc interruption
chamber of the circuit breaker.
Summary

 Introduction to circuit interruption

 Circuit-breaker switching
 TRV, RV, RRRV
 Arc phenomena

12