NORTH BENGAL INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRICAL & ELECTRONIC

ENGINEERING

COURSE NO.: EEE 4341

COURSE TITLE: POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION

• Course Teacher: Jahin

Rahman
CLASS_2
 Chapter 19 (Principles of Power Systems : V K Mehta)
CIRCUIT BREAKER
Circuit breaker is a piece of equipment which can
(i) make or break a circuit either manually or by
remote control under normal conditions
(ii) break a circuit automatically under fault conditions
(iii) make a circuit either manually or by remote
control under fault conditions
Operating principle: A circuit breaker essentially
consists of fixed and moving contacts, called
electrodes. Under normal operating conditions, these
contacts remain closed and will not open automatically
until and unless the system becomes faulty. Of course,
the contacts can be opened manually or by remote
control whenever desired.. When a fault occurs on any
part of the system, the trip coils of the circuit breaker
get energised and the moving contacts are pulled apart
by some mechanism, thus opening the circuit.
CIRCUIT BREAKER
When the contacts of a circuit breaker are separated under fault conditions, an arc is struck
between them. The current is thus able to continue until the discharge ceases. The production of
arc not only delays the current interruption process but it also generates enormous heat which
may cause damage to the system or to the circuit breaker itself. Therefore, the main problem in a
circuit breaker is to extinguish the arc within the shortest possible time so that heat generated by
it may not reach a dangerous value.
ARC PHENOMENON:
• When a short-circuit occurs, a heavy current flows through the contacts of the circuit breaker before they are
opened by the protective system. At the instant when the contacts begin to separate, the contact area decreases
rapidly and large fault current causes increased current density and hence rise in temperature. 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. 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.
(ii) Length of the arc— the arc resistance increases with the length of the arc i.e., separation of
contacts.
(iii) Cross-section of arc— the arc resistance increases with the decrease in area of X-section of
the arc.
PRINCIPLES OF ARC EXTINCTION
The factors responsible for the maintenance of arc between the contacts:
(i) P.D. Between the contacts
(ii) Ionised particles between contacts
Taking these in turn,
(i) When the contacts have a small separation, the p.d. between them is sufficient to maintain
the arc. One way to extinguish the arc is to separate the contacts to such a distance that p.d.
becomes inadequate to maintain the arc. However, this method is impracticable in high
voltage system where a separation of many metres may be required.
(ii) The ionised particles between the contacts tend to maintain the arc. If the arc path is
deionised,
the arc extinction will be facilitated. This may be achieved by cooling the arc or by bodily
removing the ionised particles from the space between the contacts.
METHODS OF ARC EXTINCTION
• There are two methods of extinguishing the arc in circuit breakers:
1. High resistance method.
2. Low resistance or current zero method
• High resistance method: In this method, arc resistance is made to increase with time so that current is reduced to
a value insufficient to maintain the arc. Consequently, the current is interrupted or the arc is extinguished. The
principal disadvantage of this method is that enormous energy is dissipated in the arc. Therefore, it is employed
only in d.c. circuit breakers and low-capacity a.c. circuit breakers.
The resistance of the arc may be increased by :
(i) Lengthening the arc. The resistance of the arc is directly proportional to its length. The length of the arc can be
increased by increasing the gap between contacts.
(ii) Cooling the arc. Cooling helps in the deionisation of the medium between the contacts. This increases the arc
resistance. Efficient cooling may be obtained by a gas blast directed along the arc.
(iii) Reducing X-section of the arc. If the area of X-section of the arc is reduced, the voltage necessary to maintain
the arc is increased. In other words, the resistance of the arc path is increased. The cross-section of the arc can be
reduced by letting the arc pass through a narrow opening or by having smaller area of contacts.
(iv) Splitting the arc. The resistance of the arc can be increased by splitting the arc into a number of smaller arcs in
series. Each one of these arcs experiences the effect of lengthening and cooling. The arc may be split by introducing
some conducting plates between the contacts.
IMPORTANT TERM
• Restriking voltage: It is the transient voltage that appears across the contacts at or near
current zero during arcing period. At current zero, a high-frequency transient voltage appears
across the contacts and is caused by the rapid distribution of energy between the magnetic
and electric fields associated with the plant and transmission lines of the system. This
transient voltage is known as restriking voltage (Fig. 19.1). The current interruption in the
circuit depends upon this voltage.
• If the restriking voltage rises more rapidly than the dielectric strength of the medium
between the contacts, the arc will persist for another half-cycle. On the other hand, if the
dielectric strength of the medium builds up more rapidly than the restriking voltage, the arc
fails to restrike and the current will be interrupted.
METHODS OF ARC EXTINCTION
• 2. Low resistance or Current zero method. 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 half cycle. 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.
METHODS OF ARC EXTINCTION
• 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
• Therefore, the real problem in a.c. arc interruption is to rapidly deionise the medium between
contacts as soon as the current becomes zero so that the rising contact voltage or restriking voltage
cannot breakdown the space between contacts. The de-ionisation of the medium can be achieved by:
(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 unionized
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.
CLASSIFICATION OF CIRCUIT BREAKERS
• There are several ways of classifying the circuit breakers. However, the most general way of
classification is on the basis of medium used for arc extinction. The medium used for arc
extinction is usually oil, air, sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) or vacuum. Accordingly, circuit
breakers may be classified into :
(i) Oil circuit breakers which employ some insulating oil (e.g., transformer oil) for arc
extinction.
(ii) Air-blast circuit breakers in which high pressure air-blast is used for extinguishing the
arc.
(iii) Sulphur hexafluroide circuit breakers in which sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) gas is used
for arc extinction.
(iv) Vacuum circuit breakers in which vacuum is used for arc extinction.
 OIL CIRCUIT BREAKERS
• In such circuit breakers, some insulating oil (e.g., transformer oil) is used as an arc quenching
medium. The contacts are opened under oil and an arc is struck between
them. The heat of the arc evaporates the surrounding oil
and dissociates it into a substantial volume of gaseous hydrogen
at high pressure. The hydrogen gas occupies a
volume about one thousand times that of the oil decomposed.
The oil is, therefore, pushed away from the arc and
an expanding hydrogen gas bubble surrounds the arc region and
adjacent portions of the contacts The arc extinction is facilitated
mainly by two processes. Firstly, the hydrogen gas has high
heat conductivity and cools the arc, thus aiding the de-ionisation of the medium between the
contacts. Secondly, the gas sets up turbulence in the oil and forces it into the space between
contacts, thus eliminating the products from the arc path. The result is that arc is extinguished a
and circuit current interrupted.