SYMMETRICAL FAULT ANALYSIS

-Priyanshu Gupta
M230825EE
● A fault in a circuit is a failure that interferes with the normal flow of current.

● A short circuit fault occurs when the insulation of the system fails resulting in
low impedance path either between phases or phase(s) to ground.

● This causes excessively high currents to flow in the circuit. The short circuit
faults can be classified as:
• Symmetrical faults
• Unsymmetrical faults
SYMMETRICAL FAULTS-

● A symmetrical fault is a fault where all phases are affected so that the
system remains balanced.

● Because symmetrical faults result in balanced conditions, they may be

analyzed using per-phase analysis.

● These faults can be of two types:

(a) line to line to line to ground fault (LLLG fault)
(b) line to line to line fault (LLL fault)

● This is a very severe fault that can occur in a system

● Such faults occur infrequently and only about 5% of the system faults
are three phase faults.
● That fault on the power system which gives rise to symmetrical current
(i.e. equal fault currents in the lines with 120 degree displacement) is
called a symmetrical fault.

● The symmetrical fault occurs when all the three conductors of a 3-Ø line
are brought together simultaneously into a short circuit condition as shown
in the fig.
SEQUENCE COMPONENTS
● An unbalanced system of ‘n’ related vectors can be resolved into ‘n’
system of balanced vectors called Symmetrical components of original
vectors.

● In a Three phase system, the three unbalanced vectors either Va, Vb, Vc
or Ia, Ib, Ic can be resolved into three balanced system of vectors. The
vectors of the balanced system are called Symmetrical components of
the original system .

● The symmetrical components of Three Phase system are as follows:

Positive Sequence Components
Negative Sequence Components
Zero Sequence Components
● The selection of a circuit breaker for a power system depends not only on the current the
breaker is to carry under normal operating conditions, but also on the maximum current it may
have to carry momentarily and the current it may have to interrupt .
● In power system terminology, the sinusoidal steady state current is called the symmetrical Short
Circuit Current on Transmission Line and the unidirectional transient component is called the DC
off-set current, which causes the total short circuit current to be unsymmetrical till the transient
decays.
Three Phase Fault on a Loaded alternator
● After a fault occurs, the subtransient, transient, and steady-state , periods are characterized
by the subtransient reactance Xd’’ the transient reactance Xd’ and the steady-state
reactance Xd, respectively. These reactances have increasing values (that is Xd’’< Xd’< Xd)
and the corresponding components of the short-circuit current have decreasing magnitudes
(I’’>I’>I).
● With the dc component removed, the initial symmetrical rms current is the rms value of the
ac component of fault current immediately after the fault occurs.
● The alternative approach using Thevenin's theorem is based on the observation that Eq. (10.11) requires
a knowledge of only VI' the prefault voltage of the fault point.

● Therefore,If’’ and the additional currents produced throughout the network by the fault can be found
simply by applying voltage Vf to the fault point P in the dead subtransient network of the system, as
shown

● If we redraw that network as shown in Fig given below it becomes clear that the symmetrical values of the
subtransient fault currents can be found from the Thevenin equivalent circuit of the subtransient network
at the fault point.
FAULT CALCULATIONS USING Zbus
THANK YOU