Rating of Circuit Breaker - Short Circuit Breaking Making Current - Electrical4U

Rating of Circuit Breaker | Short Circuit Breaking
Making Current
The rating of a circuit breaker includes,
1. Rated short circuit breaking current.

2. Rated short circuit making current.
3. Rated operating sequence of circuit breaker.
4. Rated short time current.
Short Circuit Breaking Current of Circuit Breaker

This is the maximum short circuit current which a circuit breaker can withstand before it, finally cleared by
opening its contacts.
When a short circuit flows through a circuit breaker, there would be thermal and mechanical stresses in
the current carrying parts of the breaker. If the contact area and cross-section of the conducting parts of
the circuit breaker are not sufficiently large, there may be a chance of permanent damage in insulation as
well as conducting parts of the CB. As per Joule’s law of heating, the rising temperature is directly
proportional to square of short circuit current, contact resistance and duration of short circuit current. The
short circuit current continuous to flow through circuit breaker until the short circuit is cleared by opening
operation of the circuit breaker. As the thermal stress in the circuit breaker is proportional to the period of
short circuit, the breaking capacity of electrical circuit breaker, depends upon the operating time.
At 160oC aluminum becomes soft and losses its mechanical strength, this temperature may be taken as
limit of temperature rise of breaker contacts during short circuit.
Hence short circuit breaking capacity or short circuit breaking current of circuit breaker is defined as
maximum current can flow through the breaker from time of occurring short circuit to the time of clearing
the short circuit without any permanent damage in the CB.
The value of short circuit breaking current is expressed in RMS. During short circuit, the CB is not only
subjected to thermal stress, it also suffers seriously from mechanical stresses. So during determining short
circuit capacity, the mechanical strength of the CB is also considered. So for choosing suitable circuit
breaker it is obvious to determine the fault level at that point of the system where CB to be installed.
Once the fault level of any part of electrical transmission is determined it is easy to choose the correct
rated circuit breaker for this part of network.
Rated Short Circuit Making Capacity

The short circuit making capacity of circuit breaker is expressed in peak value not in rms value like breaking
capacity.
Theoretically at the instant of fault occurrence in a system, the fault current can rise to twice of its
symmetrical fault level. At the instant of switching on a circuit breaker in faulty condition, of system, the
short circuit portion of the system connected to the source. The first cycle of the current during a circuit is
closed by circuit breaker, has maximum amplitude. This is about twice of the amplitude of symmetrical
fault current waveform.
The breaker’s contacts have to withstand this highest value of current during the first cycle of waveform
when breaker is closed under fault.
On the basis of this above mentioned phenomenon, a selected breaker should be rated with short circuit
making capacity.
As the rated short circuit making current of circuit breaker is expressed in maximum peak value, it is always
more than rated short circuit breaking current of circuit breaker. Normally value of short circuit making
current is 2.5 times more than short circuit breaking current.
Rated Operating Sequence or Duty Cycle of Circuit Breaker

This is mechanical duty requirement of circuit breaker operating mechanism. The sequence of rated
operating duty of a circuit breaker has been specified as
Where, O indicates opening operation of CB.

CO represents closing operation time which is immediately followed by an opening operation without any
intentional time delay.
t’ is time between two operations which is necessary to restore the initial conditions and/or to prevent
undue heating of conducting parts of circuit breaker. t = 0.3 sec for circuit breaker intended for first auto re
closing duty, if not otherwise specified.
Suppose rated duty circle of a circuit breaker is

This means, an opening operation of circuit breaker is followed by a closing operation after a time interval
of 0.3 sec, and then the circuit breaker again opens without any intentional time delay. After this opening
operation the CB is again closed after 3 minutes and then instantly trips without any intentional time delay.
Rated Short Time Current

This is the current limit which a circuit breaker can carry safely for certain specific time without any
damage in it. The circuit breakers do not clear the short circuit current as soon as any fault occurs in the
system. There always some intentional and an intentional time delays present between the instant of
occurrence of fault and instant of clearing the fault by CB. This delay is because of time of operation of
protection relays, time of operation of circuit breaker and also there may be some intentional time delay
imposed in relay for proper coordination of power system protection. Even a circuit breaker fails to trip,
the fault will be cleared by next higher positioned circuit breaker. In this case the fault clearing time is
longer. Hence, after fault, a circuit breaker has to carry the short circuit for certain time. The summation of
all time delays should not be more than 3 seconds; hence a circuit breaker should be capable of carrying a
maximum faulty current for at least this short period of time.
The short circuit current may have two major affects inside a circuit breaker.
1. Because of the high electric current, there may be high thermal stress in the insulation and
conducting parts of CB.
2. The high short circuit current, produces significant mechanical stresses in different current carrying
parts of the circuit breaker.
A circuit breaker is designed to withstand these stresses. But no circuit breaker has to carry a short circuit
current not more than current for a specified short period. The rated short time current of a circuit breaker
is at least equal to rated short circuit breaking current of the circuit breaker.
Rated Voltage of Circuit Breaker

Rated voltage of circuit breaker depends upon its insulation system. For below 400 KV systems, the circuit
breaker is designed to withstand 10% above the normal system voltage. For above or equal 400 KV system
the insulation of circuit breaker should be capable of withstanding 5% above the normal system voltage.
That means, rated voltage of circuit breaker corresponds to the highest system voltage. This is because
during no load or small load condition the voltage level of power system is allowed rise up to highest
voltage rating of the system.
A circuit breaker is also subject to two other high voltage conditions.
1. Sudden disconnection of huge load for any other cause, the voltage imposed on the CB and also
between the contacts when the CB is open, may be very high compared to higher system voltage.
This voltage may be of power frequency but does not stay for very long period as this high voltage
situation must be cleared by protective switchgear.
But a circuit breaker may have to withstand this power frequency over voltage, during its normal
life span.
The Circuit Breaker must be rated for power frequency withstands voltage for a specific time only.
Generally the time is 60 seconds. Making power frequency withstand capacity, more than 60
second is not economical and not practically desired as all the abnormal situations of electrical
power system are definitely cleared within much smaller period than 60 seconds.
2. Like other apparatuses connected to power system, a circuit breaker may have also to face lighting
impulse and switching impulses during its life span.
The insulation system of CB and contact gap of an open CB have to withstand these impulse voltage
waveform amplitude of this disturbance is very very high but extremely transient in nature. So a
circuit breaker is designed to withstand this impulse peaky voltage for microsecond range only.
Nominal System Highest System Power Frequency Withstand Impulse Voltage

Voltage Voltage Voltage Level
11 KV 12 KV – –
33 KV 36 KV 70 KV 170 KV
132 KV 145 KV 275 KV 650 KV
220 KV 245 KV 460 KV 1050 KV
400 KV 420 KV – –

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Rating of Circuit Breaker | Short Circuit Breaking

1. Rated short circuit breaking current.

Short Circuit Breaking Current of Circuit Breaker

Rated Short Circuit Making Capacity

Rated Operating Sequence or Duty Cycle of Circuit Breaker

Where, O indicates opening operation of CB.

Suppose rated duty circle of a circuit breaker is

Rated Short Time Current

Rated Voltage of Circuit Breaker

Nominal System Highest System Power Frequency Withstand Impulse Voltage

132 KV 145 KV 275 KV 650 KV

220 KV 245 KV 460 KV 1050 KV

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