Thermal Relay

 Introduction
• Thermal relays are required to protect the equipment against the
overload condition.
• Overload situation occurs many times during the operation of
electrical equipment.
• Any electrical equipment has the ability to withstand the overload
condition for a definite period of time depending on the severity of
overload.

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 Thermal Relay
Percentage of overload with
Time to withstand overload
respect to full load
IFL+ 20% (IFL) Continuously
IFL+ 40% (IFL) an hour
IFL+ 50% (IFL) Half an hour
IFL+ 60% (IFL) Several minutes
IFL+ 70% (IFL) Few seconds
IFL is the full load current

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 Thermal Relay
 Introduction
• The name thermal relay itself suggests that the device operates on
the principle of heating effect of electrical current.

• The characteristic of thermal relay should match with the thermal

withstanding characteristic of an equipment to be protected.

• Thermal relay requires a longer time (in seconds) to operate

compared to overcurrent relay used for overcurrent detection, which
requires a very small time (in millisecond).

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 Thermal Relay

• Earlier, a simple bimetallic strip, RTD, thermocouple or

thermosensitive devices were used.

• But their resetting time was very long.

• Thus, hot start of an equipment was not possible which in turn

creates interruption of power (revenue loss).

• This can be solved by digital/numerical relays.

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 Operating Principle of Thermal Relay
• Heat developed by electrical equipment α I2Rt

• At the same time heat dissipated α td4

• td = (temperature reached – ambient temperature)

• Equilibrium temperature (TE) (heat generated=heat dissipated).

• During normal loading of an equipment, TE is well within the

temperature withstand value (depends on type of insulation used).

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 Thermal Relay

• The time within which the temperature of equipment exceeds the

temperature withstand value of insulation is inversely proportional to
the value of overload.

• This gives inverse characteristic where time reduces exponentially.

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 Thermal Relay
 Thermal Relay Characteristic
• Overcurrent relay cannot be used for
overload protection of equipment.
• This is because overcurrent relay
cannot fully exploit the thermal
withstanding capability of the
equipment as it operates in the
range of millisecond.
• Such fast operation of overcurrent
relay is not desirable for an overload
condition of the equipment.

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 Thermal Relay

 Working of Thermal Relay

• Thermal relay consists of bimetallic strips made up of nickel alloyed
steel.
• These are heated by a heater element that absorbs the output of a
current transformer in a power circuit.
• At one end of a bimetal strip, an insulated arm with trip contacts is
provided. The arm is connected to a spring, which provides a tension
against the closing of trip contacts.

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 Thermal Relay

Bimetallic Strip

Relay CT
Contact

To Trip
Circuit
CT Secondary
Terminal
Spring
Heating Coil

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 Thermal Relay
 Operation
• Under normal operating condition, the bimetal strips remain in
straight position against the action of spring tension.
• When the overload condition is detected (120% to 140% of the rated
current), the bimetal strips bend and allow the trip contact to
energize the trip circuit.

 Applications
• Thermal relay is normally used for low-voltage and low-power-rating
induction motor and DC motor where Resistance Temperature
Detector (RTD) is not generally built-in in the protected motor.

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 Attracted Armature Relay

• It consists of an electromagnet and a hinged armature or

plunger/solenoid.
• It can be energized either by AC or DC supply.
• The attracted armature relay operates on the principle of
electromagnetic force produced, which attracts the plunger or hinged
armature.
• A restraining force is provided by means of a spring so that the
armature returns to its original position when the electromagnet is de-
energized.

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 Attracted Armature Relay
• Whenever the force developed by the electromagnet exceeds the restraining
force, the moving contact closes due to movement of the armature.
• Sometimes, multiple contacts are mounted in parallel, which cause a single
input to actuate the number of outputs.
 Applications:
• These relays are used for the protection of AC and DC equipment as an
instantaneous relay that has no intentional time delay.
 Types:
1. Hinged Type Attracted Armature Relay
2. Plunger Type Attracted Armature Relay
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 Attracted Armature Relay
1. Hinged Type Attracted Armature Relay
Back-stop Moving • Can be energized either by AC or DC
contact
supply.
Control To trip • It operates on the principle of
spring contact electromagnetic force produced,
which attracts the hinged armature.
Moving Iron core • A restraining force is provided by
armature means of a spring so that the
armature returns to its original
position when the electromagnet is
de-energized
Current or voltage
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 Attracted Armature Relay
2. Plunger Type Attracted Armature Relay
Iron core

Current
or
voltage

Moving armature Trip contact

Moving contact Control spring

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 Attracted Armature Relay

• If an AC current is used, the restraining force produced by the spring is

constant and the developed electromagnetic force is pulsating in
nature.
• Hence, the relay will chatter and produce noise.
• To overcome this problem, the magnetic pole is split in such a way that
it produces two phase-shifted fluxes in the pole such that the resultant
flux is always positive and constant.

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 Attracted Armature Relay

• These relays are fast in operation (10 and 50 ms) and fast in reset
because of the small travel distance and light moving parts.
• Operating power depends on the construction.
• However, for a relay with several heavy duty contacts, the operating
power can be as large as 80W.

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 Induction Relay
• The induction relay operates on the principle of electromagnetic
induction.
• Hence, it is a split-phase induction motor with contacts.
• They are the most widely used relays for protection of lines or apparatus.
Operating force is developed due to the interaction of two AC flux
displaced in time and space in a movable element (rotor). Depending on
the type of rotor, whether a disc or a cup, the relay is known as
1. Induction disc relay
or
2. Induction cup relay

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 Induction Relay
 Induction Disc Relay
• This relay is generally activated by
current flowing in a single coil Iron core
placed on a magnetic core having
an air gap.
Shading
• The main air-gap flux, caused Current ring
because of the flow of current,
splits into two out-of-phase Coil Disc
components by a shading ring,
which is made up of copper that
encircles the portion of the pole
face in each pole.
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 Induction Relay

 Induction Disc Relay

• The air-gap flux of shaded pole lags behind the flux of non-shaded
pole.
• The rotor (made up of copper or aluminium disc) is pivoted in such
a way that it rotates in the air gap between the poles.
• The inertia of the aluminum disc is very less. Hence they need less
deflecting torque for its movement.
• The phase angle between the two fluxes, piercing the disc, is
decided at the design stage.

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 Induction Relay
Fixed and
 Induction Cup Relay Back stop moving contact
• In this relay, the rotating magnetic field
is produced by the pair of relay coils.
Iron core
• A rotor is a hollow metallic cylindrical
cup that is arranged between
two/four/eight electromagnets and a
stationary iron core.
• The cup (looks like an induction rotor)
is free to move in the gap between the Electro Rotor
magnet cup
electromagnet and the stationary iron
core. Stationary iron core
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 Induction Relay
 Induction Cup Relay
• The rotating field induces current into the cup, which then causes the cup
to rotate in the same direction. The rotation depends on the magnitude of
the applied AC quantities and phase displacement between them.

 Advantages:
I. Induction cup relay is more efficient than the induction disc relay as far
as torque is concerned.
II. Moreover, induction cup relay is faster than induction disc relay.
III. Further, it also used in the system where directional control is required.

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 Balanced Beam Relay
• It is one type of attracted armature
device. The relay with two coils
surrounding the iron core is used to Moving Control
Armature Spring
compare two quantities, P and Q.
• Operating coil produces operating To Trip
torque, whereas the restraining coil
produces restraining torque.
Restraining Operating
P Q Coil
• These two coils are connected in Coil
such a way that their Iron-core
electromagnetic forces are in
opposition.

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 Balanced Beam Relay

• The electromagnetic force produced is proportional to the square of

the supplied quantity (Ampere-turns).
• Under normal operating conditions, the two torques are equal and
beam remains horizontal.
• When there is a fault, the operating torque exceeds the restraining
torque, the movement of armature starts.
• Due to this, armature fitted at end of the beam gets pulled and makes
contact with the contacts of trip circuit. Thus the trip circuit operates.

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 Balanced Beam Relay

• This relay has the tendency to overreach because of a low ratio of

reset to the operating current.
• It is robust and fast in operation. But due to the DC transients, it is not
accurate.
• Balance beam relay is widely used as a differential relay to compare
two AC quantities.

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 Universal Torque Equation

• Electromagnetic relay operates on the principle of mechanical force

produced in a current conducting material because of the interaction
of magnetic fluxes with their eddy currents.
• Force is produced in a part of the rotor (aluminium disc) that is
penetrated by two adjacent AC fluxes.

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 Universal Torque Equation

• Various quantities are shown at an instant when both fluxes are

directed downward and are increasing in magnitude.
• Individual voltages are produced because of each flux around itself
in the rotor, and currents flow in the rotor under the influence of
the two voltages.
• The mechanical forces produced by the reaction of two fluxes act
on the rotor.

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Universal Torque Equation

φ2 φ1
i2 i1

i2
i1 F2 F1

Disc (Rotor)

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 Universal Torque Equation
• The two fluxes are given by
φ1 = φ1max sin ωt
=φ2 φ2max sin(ωt + θ )
Where, θ is the angle by which Ф2 leads Ф1.
• Now, assuming that the path in which the rotor currents flow has negligible
self-inductance, the rotor currents are in phase with their voltages.
dφ1
i1 ∝ e1 ∝ ∝ φ1max cos ωt
dt
dφ 2
i2 ∝ e2 ∝ ∝ φ2max cos(ωt + θ )
dt
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 Universal Torque Equation
• As the two forces F1 and F2 are in opposition, the resultant force (F)
acting on the rotor is given by

F = (F2 − F1 ) ∝ φ2i1 − φ1i2

F ∝ φ1maxφ2max {cos ωt sin(ωt + θ ) − cos(ωt + θ ) sin ωt}

F ∝ φ1max φ2 max sin θ

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 Universal Torque Equation
• The resultant force is the same at every instant.
• It is clear that the magnitude of force developed on the rotor depends
on the phase angle “θ” between two fluxes.
• Greater the phase angle between the two fluxes, greater the
magnitude of force on the rotor.
• With θ = 90°, the net force is maximum.
• The direction of force and hence the direction of rotor depends on the
flux that leads the other.

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Thank You

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