Program based learning

Power system protection

Submmited by :
Name :Muhammad Atif Adeel
Manzar Abbas

Roll no : ELET51F20R023
ELET51F20R022

Submmited to:
Engr Dr Waseem Aslam
Identify the Problem

Why Circuit breaker is needed and how its works?

Why arc is struck in circuit breaker and how

to quench the arc ?
Circuit breaker

 circuit breaker is an electrical safety device, a

switch that automatically interrupts the
current of an overloaded electric circuit,
ground faults, or short circuits.
 A circuit breaker can make or break a circuit

either manually or automatically under all

conditions no load, full load and short circuit
conditions.
Why we need circuit breaker
 A circuit breaker is an electrical switch
designed to automatically open a circuit to
prevent damage to components, overheating,
and fires should an overload or short circuit
occur. This is sometimes called overcurrent
protection.
Working Principle of Circuit Breaker
 The circuit breaker mainly consists of fixed
contacts and moving contacts. In normal “ON”
condition of the circuit breaker, these two
contacts are physically connected to each
other due to applied mechanical pressure on
the moving contacts.
Working Principle
 All circuit breaker have operating coils (tripping
coils and close coil), whenever these coils are
energized by switching pulse, and the plunger
inside them displaced. This operating coil plunger
is typically attached to the operating mechanism of
circuit breaker, as a result the mechanically stored
potential energy in the breaker mechanism is
released in forms of kinetic energy, which makes
the moving contact to move as these moving
contacts mechanically attached through a gear
lever arrangement with the operating mechanism.
circuit breaker diagram
 The circuit breaker has to carry large rated or
fault power. Due to this large power, there is
always dangerously high arcing between
moving contacts and fixed contact during
operation of the circuit breaker. Again as we
discussed earlier the arc in circuit breaker can
be quenching safely if the dielectric strength
between the current carrying contacts of
circuit breaker increases rapidly during every
current zero crossing of the alternating
current
Arc Phenomenon
The heat produced in the medium between contacts
(usually the medium is oil or air) is sufficient to ionise
the air or vapourise and ionise the oil. The ionised air or
vapour acts as conductor and an arc is struck between
the contacts. The p.d. between the contacts is quite
small and is just sufficient to maintain the arc. The arc
provides a low resistance path and consequently the
current in the circuit remains uninterrupted so long as
the arc persists.
 During the arcing period, the current flowing between

the contacts depends upon the arc resistance. The

greater the arc resistance, the smaller the current that
flows between the contacts.
Arc Phenomenon
The arc resistance depends upon the following
factors
 (i) Degree of ionisation:
 The arc resistance increases with the decrease in
the number of ionised particles between the
contacts.
 (i i) Length of the arc
 The arc resistance increases with the length of the
arc i.e., separation of contacts.
 (i i i) Cross-section of arc
 The arc resistance increases with the decrease in
area of X-section of the arc.
the factors responsible for the maintenance of arc
between the contacts
 The ionized air acts as a conductor and due
to this, an arc is struck between the two
contacts. 
 A small potential difference between the

contacts is sufficient and can be responsible

for maintaining the arc,
Methods of Arc Extinction
 1. High resistance method.
 In this case the arc is controlled in such a way
that its effective resistance increases with the
time so that the current is reduced to such a
value that the heat produced by it is not
sufficient to maintain the arc and thus the
current is interrupted or the arc is
extinguished. The rate at which the resistance
is increased or the current is reduced is not
abnormal so as to cause harmful induced
voltages in the system.
(i) Cooling of Arc
 Cooling of arc brings about recombination of ionized
particles. This increases the arc resistance. Cooling removes
the heat from the arc. Cooling is brought about by bringing
the arc in contact with cool air.
(ii) Increasing the Length of Arc

 The length of the arc can be increased by

increasing the gap length between the
contacts but it is not practicable to draw the
arc out to such a length (may be in metres
for ht system) that the voltage available
becomes insufficient to maintain the arc.
(iii) Reducing the Cross Section of Arc
 The cross section of an arc can be reduced by
having a small area of contacts or by letting the arc
pass through a narrow opening. By reducing the
area of x-section of the arc, the voltage necessary
to maintain the arc is increased.
(iv) Splitting of Arc

 The resistance of the arc can be increased

by splitting the arc into number small arcs
in series. In the other method of splitting of
arc the arc is forced into an arrangement of
splitters by which the arc is lengthened and
the cooling is improved because of contacts
with the splitters.
2. Low Resistance or Current Zero Interruption

 This method is employed for arc extinction in a.c.

circuits only. In this method, arc resistance is kept low
until current is zero where the arc extinguishes naturally
and is prevented from restriking inspite of the rising
voltage across the contacts. All modern high power a.c.
circuit breakers employ this method for arc extinction.
 In an a.c. system, current drops to zero after every half-

cycle. At every current zero, the arc extinguishes for a

brief moment. Now the medium between the contacts
contains ions and electrons so that it has small dielectric
strength and can be easily broken down by the rising
contact voltage known as restriking voltage.
 If such a breakdown does occur, the arc will persist for
another halfcycle. If immediately after current zero, the
dielectric strength of the medium between contacts is built
up more rapidly than the voltage across the contacts, the arc
fails to restrike and the current will be interrupted.
 The rapid increase of dielectric strength of the medium near
current zero can be achieved by : (a) causing the ionised
particles in the space between contacts to recombine into
neutral molecules. (b) sweeping the ionised particles away
and replacing them by un-ionised particles
(i) lengthening of the gap.

 The dielectric strength of the medium is proportional to the

length of the gap between contacts. Therefore, by opening
the contacts rapidly, higher dielectric strength of the medium
can be achieved.
 (ii) high pressure.
 If the pressure in the vicinity of the arc is increased, the
density of the particles constituting the discharge also
increases. The increased density of particles causes higher
rate of de-ionisation and consequently the dielectric strength
of the medium between contacts is increased.
(iii) cooling.

 Natural combination of ionised particles takes place

more rapidly if they are allowed to cool. Therefore,
dielectric strength of the medium between the contacts
can be increased by cooling the arc.

 (iv) blast effect.

 If the ionised particles between the contacts are swept away
and replaced by unionised particles, the dielectric strength of
the medium can be increased considerably. This may be
achieved by a gas blast directed along the discharge or by
forcing oil into the contact space.
(i) Arc Voltage.

 As soon as the Breaker contacts open, an arc is formed

between the contacts of the Circuit Breaker. The voltage which
appears across the contacts of the Breaker during this arcing
period is called the Arc Voltage. Its value is low but when the
value of arc current reaches to zero, arc voltage will shoot up
to its peak value which in turn will try to main the arc across
the contacts.
 (ii) Restriking voltage

 When the current across the contact of the circuit breaker is

zero, a high-frequency transient voltage develops in the whole
breaker contact and is produced by the sudden distribution of
energy between the electric and magnetic field. This transient
voltage is called restriking voltage.
Rate of Rise of Restriking Voltage < Rate
of Rise of Dielectric Strength of Medium
 Restriking Voltage has a very important role in
the arc extinction process. If the Restriking
Voltage rises more rapidly than the dielectric
strength of the medium between the contacts
of the Circuit Breaker, the arc will persists for
next half cycle and after next half cycle, arcing
current will again reach to its zero and we will
again get a chance. If this time the rate of rise
of dielectric strength of medium between the
contacts is more than rate of rise of Restriking
Voltage then arc will extinguish.
The following are the important terms much used in
the circuit breaker analysis :
(iii) Recovery voltage.

 Recovery Voltage is the normal frequency RMS voltage that

appears across the contacts of the Circuit Breaker after final
arc extinction. It is equal to the system voltage.

 When contacts of circuit breaker are opened, current drops

to zero after every half cycle. At some current zero, the
contacts are separated sufficiently apart and dielectric
strength of the medium between the contacts attains a high
value due to the removal of ionised particles. At such an
instant, the medium between the contacts is strong enough
to prevent the breakdown by the restriking voltage.
 The voltage across the contacts is of normal frequency and is
known as recovery voltage.
Types of Circuit Breakers

 (i) Oil circuit breakers

 (ii) Air-blast circuit breakers

 (iii) Sulphur hexafluroide circuit breakers

 (iv) Vacuum circuit breakers

Oil circuit breakers
 Oil circuit breaker is such type of 
circuit breaker which used oil as a dielectric
or insulating medium for arc extinction. In oil
circuit breaker the contacts of the breaker are
made to separate within an insulating oil.
When the fault occurs in the system the
contacts of the circuit breaker are open under
the insulating oil, and an arc is developed
between them and the heat of the arc is
evaporated in the surrounding oil.
The oil circuit breaker is divided into two
categories

 (i) Bulk oil circuit breakers

 (ii) Low oil circuit breakers
 Bulk Oil Circuit Breaker: A breaker which uses a large
quantity of oil for arc extinction is called a bulk
 oil circuit breaker. Such type of circuit breaker is also
known as dead tank-type circuit breaker because their
tank is held at ground potential. The quantity of oil
requires in bulk oil circuit breaker depends on the system
voltage. If the output rating of the voltage is 110 KV, then
it requires 8 to 10 thousand kg of oil, and if their output
rating is 220 KV, then breakers need 50 thousand Kg of
oil.
Types of bulk oil CB
 may be classified into :
 (a) Plain break oil circuit breakers
 A plain-break oil circuit breaker involves the
simple process of separating the contacts
under the whole of the oil in the tank. There
is no special system for arc control other than
the increase in length caused by the
separation of contacts.
 (b) Arc control oil circuit breakers.
Arc Control Oil Circuit Breakers
There are two types of such breakers, namely
(i) Self-blast oil circuit breakers— in which
arc control is provided by internal means i.e.
the arc itself is employed for its own
extinction efficiently.
 (ii) Forced-blast oil circuit breakers — in

which arc control is provided by mechanical

means external to the circuit breaker
Self-blast oil circuit breakers types

 (a) Plain explosion pot

 (b) Cross jet explosion pot.
 (c) Self-compensated explosion pot
Air Blast Circuit Breaker
 Air blast circuit breaker used compressed air or gas
as the arc interrupting medium. In the air blast,
circuit breaker compressed air is stored in a tank
and released through a nozzle to produce a high-
velocity jet; this is used to extinguish the arc. Air
blast circuit breakers are used for indoor services in
the medium high voltage field and medium
rupturing capacity. Generally up to voltages of 15
KV and rupturing capacities of 2500 MVA. The air
blast circuit breaker is now employed in high
voltage circuits in the outdoors switch yard for 220
KV lines.
Types of Air Blast Circuit Breaker

 Axial blast Air Circuit Breaker

 Cross Blast Air Circuit Breaker 
 Radial-blast type
 Axial-blast type in which the air-blast is
directed along the arc path
 Cross-blast type in which the air-blast is
directed at right angles to the arc path
 Radial-blast type in which the air-blast is
directed radially
Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6) Circuit
Breaker
 A circuit breaker in which SF6 under pressure
gas is used to extinguish the arc is called
SF6 circuit breaker. SF6 (sulphur hexafluoride)
gas has excellent dielectric, arc quenching,
chemical and other physical properties which
have proved its superiority over other arc
quenching mediums such as oil or air
Vacuum Circuit Breaker
 A breaker which used vacuum as an arc
extinction medium is called a vacuum 
circuit breaker. In this circuit breaker, the
fixed and moving contact is enclosed in a
permanently sealed vacuum interrupter. The
arc is extinct as the contacts are separated in
high vacuum. It is mainly used for medium
voltage ranging from 11 KV to 33 KV
Example Problem