COMPARISON BETWEEN VACUUM AND SF6 CIRCUIT BREAKER FOR MED Page 1 of 9

COMPARISON BETWEEN VACUUM AND SF6 CIRCUIT BREAKER FOR

MEDIUM VOLTAGE APPLICATION

Until recently oil circuit breakers were used in large numbers for Medium voltage
Distribution system in our country. There are number of disadvantages of using oil as
quenching media in circuit breakers. Flammability and high maintenance cost are two such
disadvantages. Manufacturers and Users were forced to search for different medium of
quenching. Air blast and Magnetic air circuit breakers were developed but could not sustain
in the market due to other disadvantages associated with such circuit breakers. These new
types of breakers are bulky and cumbersome. Further research were done and simultaneously
two types of breakers were developed with SF6 as quenching media in one type and Vacuum
as quenching media in the other. These two new types of breakers will ultimately replace the
other previous types completely shortly. There are a few disadvantages in this type of
breakers also. One major problem is that the user of the breakers are biased in favour of old
fashioned oil circuit breakers and many of the users always have a step motherly attitude to
the new generations of the breakers. However in due course of time this attitude will
disappear and the new type of breakers will get its acceptance among the users and
ultimately they will completely replace the oil circuit breakers. An attempt is made to make a
comparison between the SF6 type and vacuum type circuit breakers with a view to find out as
to which of the two types is superior to the other. We will now study in detail each type
separately before we compare them directly.

VACUUM CIRCUIT BREAKERS

In a Vacuum circuit breaker, vacuum interrupters are used for breaking and
making load and fault currents. When the contacts in vacuum interrupter separate, the current
to be interrupted initiates a metal vapour arc discharge and flows through the plasma until
the next current zero. The arc is then extinguished and the conductive metal vapour
condenses on the metal surfaces within a matter of micro seconds. As a result the dielectric
strength in the breaker builds up very rapidly.
The properties of a vacuum interrupter depend largely on the material and form
of the contacts. Over the period of their development, various types of contact material have
been used. At the moment it is accepted that an oxygen free copper chromium alloy is the
best material for High voltage circuit breaker. In this alloy , chromium is distributed through
copper in the form of fine grains. This material combines good arc extinguishing
characteristic with a reduced tendency to contact welding and low chopping current when
switching inductive current. The use of this special material is that the current chopping is
limited to 4 to 5 Amps.
At current under 10KA, the Vacuum arc burns as a diffuse discharge. At high

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values of current the arc changes to a constricted form with an anode spot. A constricted arc
that remain on one spot for too long can thermically over stress the contacts to such a degree
that the deionization of the contact zone at current zero can no longer be guaranteed . To
overcome this problem the arc root must be made to move over the contact surface. In order
to achieve this, contacts are so shaped that the current flow through them results in a
magnetic field being established which is at right angles to the arc axis. This radial field
causes the arc root to rotate rapidly around the contact resulting in a uniform distribution of
the heat over its surface. Contacts of this type are called radial magnetic field electrodes and
they are used in the majority of circuit breakers for medium voltage application.
A new design has come in Vacuum interrupter, in which switching over the
arc from diffusion to constricted state by subjecting the arc to an axial magnetic field. Such a
field can be provided by leading the arc current through a coil suitably arranged outside the
vacuum chamber. Alternatively the field can be provided by designing the contact to give the
required contact path. Such contacts are called axial magnetic field electrodes. This principle
has advantages when the short circuit current is in excess of 31.5 KA.

SF6 GAS CIRCUIT BREAKER

In an SF6 circuit-breaker, the current continues to flow after contact

separation through the arc whose plasma consists of ionized SF6 gas. For, as long as it is
burning, the arc is subjected to a constant flow of gas which extracts heat from it. The arc is
extinguished at a current zero, when the heat is extracted by the falling current. The
continuing flow of gas finally de-ionises the contact gap and establishes the dielectric
strength required to prevent a re-strike.
The direction of the gas flow, i.e., whether it is parallel to or across the axis
of the arc, has a decisive influence on the efficiency of the arc interruption process. Research
has shown that an axial flow of gas creates a turbulence which causes an intensive and
continuous interaction between the gas and the plasma as the current approaches zero. Cross-
gas-flow cooling of the arc is generally achieved in practice by making the arc move in the
stationary gas. This interruption process can however, lead to arc instability and resulting
great fluctuations in the interrupting capability of the circuit breaker.

In order to achieve a flow of gas axially to the arc a pressure differential must be created
along the arc. The first generation of the SF6 circuit breakers used the two-pressure principle
of the air-blast circuit-breaker. Here a certain quantity of gas was kept stored at a high
pressure and released into the arcing chamber. At the moment high pressure gas and the
associated compressor was eliminated by the second generation design. Here the pressure
differential was created by a piston attached to the moving contacts which compresses the gas
in a small cylinder as the contact opens. A disadvantage is that this puffer system requires a
relatively powerful operating mechanism.

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Neither of the two types of circuit breakers described was able to compete with the oil
circuit breakers price wise. A major cost component of the puffer circuit-breaker is the
operating mechanism; consequently developments followed which were aimed at reducing or
eliminating this additional cost factor. These developments concentrated on employing the
arc energy itself to create directly the pressure-differential needed. This research led to the
development of

the self-pressuring circuit-breaker in which the over – pressure is created by using the arc
energy to heat the gas under controlled conditions. During the initial stages of development,
an auxiliary piston was included in the interrupting mechanism, in order to ensure the
satisfactory breaking of small currents. Subsequent improvements in this technology have
eliminated this requirement and in the latest designs the operating mechanism must only
provide the energy needed to move the contacts.

Parallel to the development of the self-pressuring design, other work resulted in the
rotating – arc SF6 gas circuit breaker. In this design the arc is caused to move through, in
effect the stationery gas. The relative movement between the arc and the gas is no longer
axial but radial, i.e., it is a cross-flow mechanism. The operating energy required by circuit
breakers of this design is also minimal.

Table 1. Characteristics of the SF6 and vacuum current interrupting technologies.

SF6 Circuit Breakers Vacuum Circuit

Breakers
Criteria Puffer Circuit BreakerSelf-pressuring Contact material-
circuit-breaker Chrome-Copper
Operating energy Operating Energy Operating Energy Operating energy
requirements requirements are high, requirements are low, requirements are low,
because the because the because the
mechanism must mechanism must mechanism must
supply the energy move only relatively move only relatively
needed to compress small masses at small masses at
the gas. moderate speed, over moderate speed, over
short distances. The very short distances.
mechanism does not
have to provide the
energy to create the
gas flow
Arc Energy Because of the high conductivity of the arc in Because of the very
the SF6 gas, the arc energy is low. (arc low voltage across the
voltage is between 150 and 200V.) metal vapour arc,
energy is very low.
(Arc voltage is
between 50 and
100V.)

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Contact Erosion Due to the low energy the contact erosion is Due to the very low
small. arc energy, the rapid
movement of the arc
root over the contact
and to the fact that
most of the metal
vapour re-condenses
on the contact, contact
erosion is extremely
small.
Arc extinguishing The gaseous medium SF6 possesses excellent No additional
media dielectric and arc quenching properties. After extinguishing medium
arc extinction, the dissociated gas molecules is required. A vacuum
recombine almost completely to reform SF6. at a pressure of 10-7
This means that practically no bar or less is an almost
loss/consumption of the quenching medium ideal extinguishing
occurs. The gas pressure can be very simply medium. The
and permanently supervised. This function is interrupters are ‘sealed
not needed where the interrupters are sealed for life’ so that
for life. supervision of the
vacuum is not
required.
Switching behavior in The pressure build-up The pressure build-up No flow of an
relation to current and therefore the flow and therefore the flow ‘extinguishing’
chopping of gas is independent of gas is dependent medium needed to
of the value of the upon the value of the extinguish the vacuum
current. Large or small current to be arc. An extremely
currents are cooled interrupted. Large rapid de-ionization of
with the same currents are cooled the contact gap,
intensity. Only small intensely, small ensures the
values of high currents gently. High interruption of all
frequency, transient frequency transient currents whether large
currents, if any, will currents will not, in or small. High
be interrupted. The de- general, be frequency transient
ionization of the interrupted. The de- currents can be
contact gap proceeds ionization of the interrupted. The value
very rapidly, due to contact gap proceeds of the chopped current
the electro-negative very rapidly due to the is determined by the
characteristic of the electro-negative type of contact
SF6 gas and the arc characteristic of the material used. The
products. SF6 gas and the presence of chrome in
products. the contact alloy with
vacuum also.
No. of short-circuit 10---50 10---50 30---100
operation
No. full load operation 5000---10000 5000---10000 10000---20000
No. of mechanical 5000---20000 5000---20000 10000---30000
operation

COMPARISON OF THE SF6 AND VACUUM TECHNOLOGIES

The most important characteristics of the SF6 gas and vacuum-circuit breakers, i.e., of

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SF6 gas and vacuum as arc-extinguishing media are summarized in Table-1.

In the case of the SF6 circuit-breaker, interrupters which have reached the limiting
number of operations can be overhauled and restored to ‘as new’ condition. However, practical
experience has shown that under normal service conditions the SF6 interrupter never requires
servicing throughout its lifetime. For this reason, some manufacturers no longer provide facilities for
the user to overhaul the circuit-breaker, but have adopted a ‘sealed for life’ design as for the vacuum-
circuit breaker.

The operating mechanisms of all types of circuit-breakers require servicing, some

more frequently than others depending mainly on the amount of energy they have to provide. For the
vacuum-circuit breaker the service interval lies between 10,000 and 20,000 operations. For the SF6
designs the value varies between 5,000 and 20,000 whereby, the lower value applies to the puffer
circuit-breaker for whose operation, the mechanism must deliver much more energy.

The actual maintenance requirements of the circuit-breaker depend upon its service
duty, i.e. on the number of operations over a given period of time and the value of current
interrupted. Based on the number of operations given in the previous section, it is obvious that SF6
and vacuum circuit-breakers used in public supply and /or industrial distribution systems will, under
normal circumstances, never reach the limits of their summated breaking current value. Therefore,
the need for the repair or replacement of an interrupter will be a rare exception and in this sense
these circuit-breakers can be considered maintenance-free. Service or maintenance requirements are
therefore restricted to routine cleaning of external surfaces and the checking and lubrication of the
mechanism, including the trip-linkages and auxiliary switches. In applications which require a very
high number of circuit-breaker operations e.g. for arc furnace duty or frequently over the SF6 design,
due to its higher summated-breaking current capability. In such cases it is to be recommended that
the estimation of circuit-breaker maintenance costs be given some consideration and that these be
included in the evaluation along with the initial, capital costs.

Reliability

In practice, an aspect of the utmost importance in the choice of a circuit-breaker is

reliability.

The reliability of a piece of equipment is defined by its mean time to failure (MTF),
i.e. the average interval of time between failures. Today, the SF6 and vacuum circuit-breakers made
use of the same operating mechanisms, so in this regard they can be considered identical.

However, in relation to their interrupters the two circuit breakers exhibit a marked
difference. The number of moving parts is higher for the SF6 circuit-breaker than that for the
vacuum unit. However, a reliability comparison of the two technologies on the basis of an analysis of
the number of components are completely different in regards design, material and function due to
the different media. Reliability is dependent upon far too many factors, amongst others,
dimensioning, design, base material, manufacturing methods, testing and quality control procedures,
that it can be so simply analyzed.

In the meantime, sufficient service experience is available for both types of circuit-
breakers to allow a valid practical comparison to be made. A review of the available data on failure
rates confirms that there is no discernible difference in reliability between the two circuit-breaker
types. More over, the data shows that both technologies exhibit a very high degree of reliability
under normal and abnormal conditions.

Switching of fault currents

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Today, all circuit-breakers from reputable manufacturers are designed and type-tested
in conformance with recognized national or international standards (IEC56). This provides the
assurance that these circuit-breakers will reliably interrupt all fault currents up to their maximum
rating. Further, both types of circuit-breakers are basically capable of interrupting currents with high
DC components; such currents can arise when short circuits occur close to a generator.
Corresponding tests have indeed shown that individual circuit-breakers of both types are in fact,
capable of interrupting fault currents with missing current zeros i.e. having a DC component greater
than 100 per cent. Where such application is envisaged, it is always to be recommended that the
manufacturer be contacted and given the information needed for a professional opinion.

As regards the recovery voltage which appears after the interruption of a fault current
the vacuum-circuit breaker can, in general, handle voltages with RRV values of up to 5KV. SF6
circuit-breakers are more limited, the values being in the range from 1 to 2 KV. In individual
applications, e.g. in installations with current limiting chokes or reactors, etc., With SF6 circuit-
breakers it may be advisable or necessary to take steps to reduce that rate of rise of the transient
recovery voltage.

Switching small inductive currents

The term, small inductive currents is here defined as those small values of almost pure inductive
currents, such as occur with unloaded transformers, motor during the starting phase or running
unloaded and reactor coils. When considering the behavior of a circuit-breaker interrupting such
currents, it is necessary to distinguish between high frequency and medium frequency transient
phenomena.

Medium frequency transients arise from, amongst other causes, the interruption of a current before it
reaches its natural zero. All circuit-breakers can, when switching currents of the order of a few
hundred amperes and, due to instability in the arc, chop the current immediately prior to a current
zero.
This phenomenon is termed real current chopping. When it occurs, the energy
Stored in the load side inductances oscillates through the system line to earth capacitances
(winding and cable capacitances) and causes an increase in the voltage. This amplitude of the
resulting over voltage is a function of the value of the current chopped. The smaller the chopped
current, the lower the value of the over voltage.

In addition to the type of circuit - breaker, the system parameters at the point of
installation are factors which determine the height of the chopping current, in particular the system
capacitance parallel to the circuit breaker is of importance. The chopping current of SF6 circuit-
breakers is essentially determined by the type of circuit-breaker. The value of chopping current
varies from 0.5A to 15A, whereby the behavior of the self - pressuring circuit-breaker is particularly
good, its chopping current being less than 3A.This ‘soft’
Switching feature is attributable to the particular characteristics of the interrupting mechanism
of the self-pressuring design and to the properties of the SF6 gas itself.

In the early years of the development of the vacuum circuit-breaker the switching
of small inductive currents posed a major problem, largely due to the contact material in use at that
time. The introduction of the chrome copper contacts brought a reduction of the chopping current to
between 2 to 5A.The possibility of impermissible over voltages arising due to current chopping has
been reduced to a negligible level.

High frequency transients arise due to pre- or re-striking of the arc across the
open contact gap. If, during an opening operation, the rising voltage across the opening contacts,
exceed the dielectric strength of the contact gap , a re-strike occurs. The high-frequency transient
current arising from such a re-strike can create high frequency current zeros causing the circuit-

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breaker to, interrupt again. This process can cause a further rise in voltage and further re-strikes.
Such an occurrence is termed as multiple restriking.

With circuit- breakers that can interrupt high frequency transient currents, re-
striking can give rise to the phenomenon of virtual current chopping. Such an occurrence is possible
when a re-strike in the first-phase-to-clear, induces high frequency transients in the other two phases,
which are still carrying service frequency currents. The superimposition of this high frequency
oscillation on the load current can cause an apparent current zero and an interruption by the circuit-
breaker, although the value of load current may be quite high. This phenomenon is called virtual
current chopping and can result in a circuit breaker ‘chopping’ very much higher values of current
than it would under normal conditions. The results of virtual current chopping are over-voltages of
very high values.
This phenomenon is termed real current chopping. When it occurs, the energy Stored in the load side
inductances oscillates through the system line to earth capacitances (winding and cable capacitances)
and causes an increase in the voltage. This amplitude of the resulting over voltage is a function of the
value of the current chopped. The smaller the chopped current, the lower the value of the over
voltage.
In addition to the type of circuit - breaker, the system parameters at the point of
installation are factors which determine the height of the chopping current, in particular the system
capacitance parallel to the circuit breaker is of importance. The chopping current of SF6 circuit-
breakers is essentially determined by the type of circuit-breaker. The value of chopping current
varies from 0.5A to 15A, whereby the behaviour of the self - pressuring circuit-breaker is
particularly good, its chopping current being less than 3A.This ‘soft’ Switching feature is
attributable to the particular characteristics of the interrupting mechanism of the self-pressuring
design and to the properties of the SF6 gas itself.
In the early years of the development of the vacuum circuit-breaker the switching
of small inductive currents posed a major problem, largely due to the contact material in use at that
time. The introduction of the chrome copper contacts brought a reduction of the chopping current to
between 2 to 5A.The possibility of impermissible over voltages arising due to current chopping has
been reduced to a negligible level.
High frequency transients arise due to pre- or re-striking of the arc
across the open contact gap. If, during an opening operation, the rising voltage across the opening
contacts exceeds the dielectric strength of the contact gap, a re-strike occurs. The high-frequency
transient current arising from such a re-strike can create high frequency current zeros causing the
circuit-breaker to, interrupt again. This process can cause a further rise in voltage and further re-
strikes. Such an occurrence is termed as multiple re-striking.
With circuit- breakers that can interrupt high frequency transient currents, re-
striking can give rise to the phenomenon of virtual current chopping. Such an occurrence is possible
when a re-strike in the first-phase-to-clear, induces high frequency transients in the other two phases,
which are still carrying service frequency currents. The superimposition of this high frequency
oscillation on the load current can cause an apparent current zero and an interruption by the circuit-
breaker, although the value of load current may be quite high. This phenomenon is called virtual
current chopping and can result in a circuit breaker ‘chopping’ very much higher values of current
than it would under normal conditions. The results of virtual current chopping are over-voltages of
very high values

TABLE 2. COMPARISON OF THE SF6 AND VACUUM TECHNOLOGIES IN

RELATION TO OPERATIONAL ASPECTS.

Criteria SF6 Breaker VCB

Summated current cumulative 10-50 times rated short circuit 30-100 times rated short
current circuit current

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Breaking current capacity of 5000-10000 times 10000-20000 times

interrupter
Mechanical operating life 5000-20000 C-O operations 10000-30000 C-O operations
No operation before 5000-20000 C-O operations 10000-30000 C-O operations
maintenance
Time interval between 5-10 years 5-10 years
servicing Mechanism
Outlay for maintenance Labour cost High, Material Labour cost Low, Material
cost Low cost High
Reliability High High
Dielectric withstand strength High Very high
of the contact gap

Very extensive testing has shown that, because of its special characteristics the SF6 self-pressuring
circuit-breaker possesses considerable advantages in handling high frequency transient phenomena,
in comparison with both the puffer type SF6 and the vacuum circuit breakers. The past few years
have seen a thorough investigation of the characteristics of vacuum circuit breakers in relation to
phenomena such as multiple re-striking and virtual current chopping. These investigations have
shown that the vacuum circuit-breaker can indeed cause more intense re-striking and hence more
acute over voltages than

Other types. However, these arise only in quite special switching duties such as the tripping of
motors during starting and even then only with a very low statistical probability. The over-voltages
which are created in such cases can be reduced to safe levels by the use of metal oxide surge
diverters.

TABLE 3. COMPARISON OF THE SF6 AND VACUUM SWITCHING TECHNOLOGIES

IN RELATION TO SWITCHING APPLICATIONS

Criteria SF6 Breaker VCB
Switching of Short circuit Well suited Well suited
current with High DC
component
Switching of Short circuit Well suited under certain Very well suited
current with High RRV conditions (RRV>1-2 kV per
Milli seconds
Switching of transformers Well suited. Well suited
Switching of reactors Well suited Well suited. Steps to be taken
when current <600A. to avoid
over voltage due to current
chopping

Switching of capacitors Well suited. Re-strike free Well suited. Re-strike free

Switching of capacitors back to Suited. In some cases current Suited. In some cases current
back limiting reactors required to limit limiting reactors required to limit
inrush current inrush current

Switching of arc furnace Suitable for limited operation Well suited. Steps to be taken to
limit over voltage.

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