IEEE Transactions on Power Dclivety, Vol. 14, No.

4, October 1999 1317

OVERVOLTAGES DUE TO SWITCHING OFF AN UNLOADED

TRANSFORMER WITH A VACUUM CIRCUIT BREAKER

Marjan Popov, incinber IEEE Enrique Acha, member IEEE

University St. Cyril and Melhodious, Skopje l l i e University orGlasgow
Deparlinent o f Electrical Engineering. P.O. Box 574, Departinen1 of Electrical Engineering and Electronics
Rcuublic o f Macedonia Scotland, UI<

Absrriicf-When a vacuuni breaker i s used to disconnect an to tlic transformer windings. The reason is lhat the stored
uiiloaded transforiner, high overvoltages m a y result on tlic magnetic encrgy iii the transformer arter the current has been
secondary sicle. I ' l i c plieiinmena of c u r r e n t chopping and chopped i s converted into clectroslalic energy by charging tlic
multiple reigoitions iiftcr coiitact openiiig. sliurtly before current tramforiner capacitance. By equating [lie stored inagnctic
zero, play a significant role in generating these overvoltages.
energy with the stored clectrostatic encrgy. and neglecting
Furthermore, t h e transient recovery voltage (I'KV) is also
influenced by virtual current chopping wliicli inay lead tu f a s t tlic damping, tlic voltage which i s built up at the transformer
interruptions and reignitions. 'l'lic paper reports on a vacuuin tcriiiiiials is:
-
brealier model implemented in the ATP-EMTP prngrain.
Simulations liiive been performed to cletermine overvoltages
generated by the vacuum breaker, before and after suppression.
Network eleiiients were simulatecl by simplified models of liniitecl where I+ i s llie magnetising induclance o f thc transrormer, C
complexity. transformer capacitance and I,,,i s the chopping curreiii.
According to (I) it caii be sccii that llie generatcd overvoltagc
Key words: vacuum circuit breaker, TIIV, ATP-EMTP, depends oii the chopping ciirreiit and t i e surge iinpcdance of
transformer the transformer wliicli might be very high due lo the low
lransforiiier capacilance. lr tlie arc i s reignited in one pole,
I. 1NTROI)UC'I'ION liigh frequency current flows in the otlicr poles o f the circuil
breaker (fig. I),which is also followcd by vollage escalation
Expcriencc shows that tlic t~insforiiiersarc exposed to (lig. 2).
high overvoltages when switched by vacuuin circuit breakers,
and when repetitive reignitions takes place. I1 was sliowii iii
previous work 151 tliat due lo tlic mulliple reignition in the
vaciiiiiii circuit breakcr. voltage cscalatioii can occur duriny
load shedding wlicii l l i e Vaciiiiin breaker is iiscd as ii
generator circuit breaker. L.oadcd arc furnace traiisforiiicrs
iiiay also be subjected to high voltage transients due to
repetitive reignition in the circuit breaker [I I]. Unloaded
trunsforiners were found to be subject to severe overvoltages
when switched by vaciiiiin breakers. The possibility o f tlic
vacuum circuit breaker to chop the current due to the iinstablc
arc burniiig around current zero. and the virtual chopping
~iliciioineiiaIlia1 iiiiglit occiir wlicii switching olf a three
phase load, lead to very liigh 'I'KV wliicli iiiay cause damage
I . ~ -~ ~~ ~

1.1. I Iiillucace nl'tlic ieignitcil ~ ~ i r r e iii

i i lonc liolc io lhc otlicr iw pdcs

This may cause enforced current zeros in tlic other two poles,
wliicli happens if tlie aperiodic reignition current induced by
l l i e pole tlial is already cleared is greater in magnitude Lliaii
the iiisLiiiitaiie~usload current and opposite in polarity. 'I'liis
PE-072-PWRD-0-05-1998 A paper recommended and approved by iiiccliaiiisiii lkiiown as virtiial current clioppiiig caii also cause
the IEEE Switchgear Committee of the IEEE Power Engineering rcpetilive rcignilion which leads to vcry high TRV. T h e
Society for publication in the IEEE Transactions on Power Deliveiy
Manuscriptsubmitted October 8, 1997; made available for printing May resulting TIIV in nnc of Lliese IWO poles will be of tlic Sanie
18, 1998. polarity as tlic first pole, but lhc oppnsite oii the other.
 111 [ I ] an expression is used to calculate tlie chopping current

'S .
sauce sde Lk UIS load sde

~ MOD=
~

Fig. 3 Model oftlie VU

which is valid for load currents between 45 A and 170 A.

Here the mean chopping level is calculated according to [4,
141:
-
Fig 2 Vdtage escalation caused by icigiiilcd CLI!ICI>I
Id, = (2 n . .f',
' I,m .p)" (2)

This results i n possible double magnitude on one line-to-line / - power frequency (60 Hz),
voltage [ I O ] . The phenomena mentioned above are caused by 7 - amplitude of the load current,
the properties of thc circuit. On the other hand the vacutiin
gap with its statistical character plays significant role in the a = 6.2 10-16s,p=
14.3,q=-0.07512
generation of the high voltage lransients. In ordcr to simulate
these conditions it was required to develop a vactiuni breaker The chopping currents calculated by expression (2)
model with the appropriate statistical behaviour. correspond to those of vacuiiin breakers that use CuiCr
contacts. This value is varied by a uniform distribution with
The paper focuses on the circuit breaker model and the 15% standard deviation. Depending on the moment of contact
parameters are set to simulate the most severe TRV at the opening the chopping current has different value. The closer
transformer terminals. The EMTP gives an opportunity for the contacts open to current zero, the higher the chopping
modelling both the circuit breaker and the associated current. This implies to higher overvoltage production. The
network speed of contact opening and quenching capability are also
very important. The first coiitrols the speed of withstand
11. CIRCUIT BREAKER MODEL voltage build up, whilst the second arc extinguishing at high
frequencies. The withstand voltage is considered to be
I n order to simulate the phenomena that appears when linearly dependent on the gap distance and is given by [I]:
switching off a vacuum circuit breaker it is necessary to
consider the statislical properties of the vactium breaker: U,, = Ekr . v . t (3)
where:
chopping current, Exr- withstand electric field between the contacts,
withstand voltage ofthe vactiuiii gap, v - speed of contact separation,
high frequency quenching capability. t - timestep ofthe simulation.

The vacuum breaker can be inodelled with a variable arc After the current has been chopped a 'race' between the
resistance [I, 6, 81. Another possibility [4, 5, 141 is to TRV and withstand voltage appears. Whenever tlie TRV
represent the breaker with an ideal switch, type-13 element exceeds the withstand voltage reignition O C C I I ~ S . Reopening
(fig. 3) which opens or closes whenever the voltage across tlie can occui if the slope of the current at current zero has a
breaker is lower or higher than the withstand voltage of the value lower than the critical current slope, and the magnitude
given cii-cuit breaker. orthe high frequency current is lower than the high frequency
chopping level. The value of critical slope is found to be
ATP's MODELS language was used to control the opening randomly distributed. A random generator is used to select a
and closing of the switch, including current chopping at critical slope between 30 - 75 Aips.
power and high frequency, withstand voltage or the gap and
the high frequency quenching capability. Due to the random
111. SIMUILATION OF A SINGLE PHASE ClRCUll~
variation ofthe 60 t l z chopping level it is very hard to predict
the chopping ctirrenl. Former research was rocused on
In order to v e r i 6 the validity of the proposed model a
determining Lhc chopping level or the vactiiiin circuit breaker.
modified single-phase circuit is used, which was first
 1319

proposed by Carnerki and prof, Lindinayer (fig. 4). 'l'lie

source U is connected by a sinall resistor (not shown on the
picture) that represents the internal source resistance. The
resistor R , , inductance I./,and capacitance C,, represent tlic
paramctcrs of the bus bars atid cable which are connected to
the load. l'lie rest o f the elements in fig. 4 are load
parameters. T h e model used yields h e saiiie results as the
Lindinayer tiiodel.

b Lh CO
,I
R> Li I h b
I - ,
CB

b)L

big 4 Test ciicciit Ibr the VI3 model

u=5134 v R,-8.2 n L.,-SO LIH' ~ ? = n . n m

1.?=8.4 intl R,,,=2.58 n I,,,,=6.X m l l L,,-O.2 I~I
RK-lO' n C,,=15 iiF Rl,=50 L,,=SO n l l
cb=2nnpl:
Thc circuit hreakcr includes an additional parallel branch that
rcpresents tlic opeii gap The parallel branch is used 10
represent the post zero current which i s usually a few
amperes, due to remanent ions iii the gap and tlic
displacement current dqidt. I t s peak lnagnitiidc dcpcnds on
.~ ~~~.
the slope o f the current before current zero [ I ? ] . I n fig. 5 the
~ ~~ ~ ~ ~~ ~

results of tlic simulation in the single phase test circuil are c)

Pig. 5 Simolatioiis in a aiiiglc liliarc CircLiit
given. Fig. 5 a) presents the current through the switch at a) ciirreiit tlirougli llie brcakcr
successful arc extinguishing. B y varying the parameters in b) load sidc voltsgc
the circuit, as well as tlic inoinent o f contact separation it is c) vollagc across the brcahcr
easy to get an unsuccessful arc extinguishing with a few
Whenevcr [lie hf-current i s quenched successfully the TRV
reignilions. 111 fig. 5 b) and c) the load side voltage and V B
rises. When the V B voltage withstands tlic T R V no hf-cui-rent
voltage are given respectivcly.
flows through the V13, and it approaches power frcqiicncy.

IV. M O D E L I M P L E M E N T A I ' I O N FOR TRANSFORMER

ANALYSIS

The developed V B tnodcl is suitable for analysing

switching overvoltages 011 an unloaded transformer. An o i l
filled transformer and cable arc connected by a V B as it is
shown in fig. 6. The transformer was modelled by EMTP's
satorable tvansforiiier model. The model provides the
transient response at transformcr terminals. For calculating
transient response along the wiiiding, a more detailed model
is required, but this was bcyond the scope of this p p c r . 'The
cable was modelled by EM'l'P's distributed parameter option.
A l l system data are given in Table I.
For the case studicd excessive overvoltages inay occur at
the secondary terminals of the transformer. This can damage
1320

winding insulation and cause winding flashover to core. It is important to mention that the surge capacitance values
Possible suppression of such overvoltages includes the varicd and they depend on the connection of the HV
installation of capacitors on the low voltage side [l21, or transformer windings and chopping voltage factor.
using preinsertioii resistors on the primary side [I I ] . Another Expression (4) is derived by equating the stored magnetic and
one is to install an R-C branch phase to ground at the priinary clectrostatic energy and assuming that primary transformer
side as close as possible to the transformer terininals. capacitance is sinall enough so that can be neglected. The
chopping voltage factor k limits no-load overvoltages to lt-
TAII1.E I times phase to ground rated primary voltagc. I n appendix a
S Y S I E M DATA table is given, that shows the calculated values of the R-C
Pare,neter I Value branch Tor different chopping voltage factors. The time
lrensiollllcr tiatil constants of the R-C branch are also included. The selected
lraliiformcr rated uowcr 13MVA
13.810.2 kV, Y,,d 5
resistor assists in damping the transient oscillations. Another
60 HZ fiinction of this resistor is to prevent current zeros being
596 forced in the otlier switch poles when ihe first pole to clear
7 111.' suffers a reignition. It is suggested to lteep the surge
7 "F
4 111.'
capacitor as small as possible. There are two reasons for this.
I% The smaller the capacitance, the smaller tlic reignition
current magnitude when the switch reignits.
The resistor should be rated for the contiinioiis capacitor
current, hence its sizc is function of the surge
capacitance selected.

V. RESULTS AND DlSCUSSlON

Using the network shown in fig. 6, inumerous simulations

were performed with and without the R-C suppression
branch Fig. 7 ihrough fig. I O present the reignition current
througli the vacutim circuit breaker and voltages at the LV
IidLV il 2 L\' and HV side in phase T before suppression.

I*
Fig. 6 System coiiligoratian for EM1'1' simuliitions

l h e values ofthe surge capacitance and resistor are chosen

by equation (4) and ( 5 ) :

where:
S,, - Icated transformer power i n MVA,
io -magnetising current in %, ~~~~ . ~~

f - power tkequcncy i n Hz, Fig. 7 VI? wrrent iii liltiise T

U,, - line-to-line supply voltage in kV,
k -chopping voltagc factor. The results of the sinidations atier supprcssion are given i n
r T fig. 11, 12 and 13. According to these results it may be

whcre:
R,t2 2
it.. concluded that significant reduction in overvoltage and
redtictioil in the magnitude of reignited current can be
achieved. Simulations were also made with a capacitor
L, - inductance ofthe cable, installed at the LV terminals of the transformer as a protective
C, - surge capacitance dcvice. This yields lower secondary overvoltages but has no
substantial effect on the reignited ciirreiit.
 1321

~ ~.~ ~~ ~~ ~. - ~~- ~
~~ ~ ~~~

I:ig 13 I'liasc to ground voliegcs 81 thc I.V iraoil'orincr sidc aI\cr

iio i l l i c I IV tr;inslhrmct side bclirrc
111 I ~ X C i n plinsc v o l t a ~ ca1
sL,(~prcs\I"Il
sulilxcssioon

It is suggested tliat if virtual current chopping OCCIIIS, the use 111 this case liglitiiiiig arresters should be connected no1 only

i~t'lighliiingarresters sliould be considered. Due to the virtilal line to ground but also between tIV tcrininais in order to
chopping tlie peak valucs o f t l i e voltages in two pllases might Iprotect the transformer. This also depends 011 thc coiiiiectioii
rcach oppositc polarity and produce very high line to line ofthe I-IV windings, and protection requirements for Wye and
voltages. DelLa connected HV windings arc different.
1322
VI. CONCI.USION

It was found that the transformers under no load can be

cxposed to vcry high rcpetitive overvoltages if they are
switched off hy a vacuutii circuit breaker. The magnitude and
frequency of such overvollagcs depend on the cliaracteristics
of the systein and tlic statistical behaviour of the switch. A
gcneric E M I P inodel of a vacuum breakcr is described Tor
the siniulalion of these overvoltages. The chopping ciirreiit
strongly depend on tlie type or contact inaterial, tlius can lead
lo different overvoltages. Such a rcsearcli was not inade here
and that is bcyond tlie scope of tliis paper. A properly cliosen
I<-C circuit connected at the primary terminals of tlie
transrormer provides a good overvoltage suppression. The
cost of tliis suppression device is sinal1 compared to the cost
of a potcntial transformer failure. Should tlie network
conliguratioii lead to virtual current chopping, phase to
ground atid phase to phase lightning arresters inay also be
rcquircd in addition to the R-C suppression circuit. Tliis
would provide complete surgc protection for an unloaded
translbriner. Increasing the capacitance connccted to tlie
secondary sidc of the transformer, by adding extra sliuiit
capacilors, or cablcs, would decrease the overvoltages inainly
on the secondary side of the transformer. The use of the ATP-
E M I P prograni was shown to be a very powerful tool for the
modelling of a vacuiiiii circiiit breaker and the study or
overvoltages caused by switching off an unloadcd
transrormer.

VII. FUTURE POSSIBLE WORI<

More detailed vacuum breaker tnodel will be developed by

taking into accouiit more accurate measured characteristics.
Additional work will be done in order to estimate tlie
statistical overvoltage distribution at different opening timcs.

VIII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 1998 rcspeclivcly.. In 1997 lic \\'as a reseilrcli

assistiiiit at the University of Livcrpaol. His
inajor liclds of rescarcli are tire modelling and
The first author would like to thank MI'. Gabor Furst,
transient phenonicne iii power systcias using
Vancouver. Canada for his valuable suggestions during the EMII'. Mr, I'opov is a membcr o f IEEE.
preparation oftliis paper.

'l',\BLt? II. I'ARAMITFRS 01: 'IIII: R-C RRANCI-I

30.43
3651 10.59
0 I8 45.64
43 03 4.5
 1323

DISCUSSION 6 . For the suppression of the overvoltages generated by the

vacuiiin breaker, an R-C surge suppresser is uscful. Surge
Toshlhisa Funahashi, Senior Member, Meidensha Corporation, capacitance value and resistor value are calculated by using
36-2, Nihonbashi-hakozakicho, Chuc-ku, Tokyo, 103-85 15, Japan, equation (4). Could the authors show the way to derive the
Yoshihiko Matsui, Meidensha Corporation, Shizuoka, Japan, equation (4) by equating the stored magnetic aid electrostatic
Akihiro Amctani, Fellow, Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan : energy? In this paper the calculated capacitance is 0.1 to 0.4 U F,
which secms to he acceptable from the point of conventional
1. The authors havc proposed a vacuum circuit breaker model for scheme. In reference [AS] a conservative approach could he the
a TRV simulation of the breaker. The proposed model is based on addition of 0.25 U F surge capacitors installed on each phase on
statistical properties of the vacuum breaker. the incoming side of the circuit breaker.
- chopping current,
- withstand voltage of the vacuum gap, 7. l h e installation of the surge arrester is ellectivc for the
- lligh frequency quenching capability. suppression of ovcrvolkges. In refcrence [IQ], the ovcrvoltagc of
The very powerful simulation capability of ATP-EMTP p r o g m the unloaded transformer, when it is switchcd by tbe vacuum
was demonstrated in the paper. However, the simulation result by breaker, is discussed. It is written that +-type transformers
this kmd of models is essentially deterministic even if the with low-impulsc voltage rating are more vulnerable and the
simulation includes the statistical properties of the vacuum recommended protection schemcs including the surge arrestcr
breaker. To ensure the designed surge suppression circuit’s application are shown. In cases of motors frequently switched on,
effectivencss, numerous simulations are needed. More powerful a combination of the R-C suppresser and ZnO-varistors is oiten
method is desirable. used and thk combination has higher performance than the R-C or
ZnO applications although the cost is also higher [A4].
2. As stated in the paper, there is another approach to model the
vacuum breaker, which uscs the arc equation such as Mayr’s 8. In Fig.6 and Table.1, the meaning of the symbol “5” in the
equation or Cassic’s equation. In this approach the arc resistance transformer rated voltage “13.8/0.2kV, YndS” is not clear.
is represented as a fimction of breaker currents ruld source-
sidehad-sidc voltages. Alternatively, in reference [AI] an References
artificial neural network (ANN) is used to represent the arc [AI] J.Kosmac and P.Zunko, “A Neural Network Vacuum Circuit
resistance nonlinear characteristic, ANN implementation might Breaker Model for Simulalion of Transient Overvoltages,”
be useful, if it is well timed for a specific breaker. However, it is European W P L!wr’s Croup Meetinp; (EEUG’95).
not always applicable to anothcr typc of breakers. As a generic IIannover, German, November 13-15, 1995
model, the model with a function of voltagcs and cment seems to [A21 P.G.Slade, “Vacuum lntempters: The New Technology for
be better than an ANN type. Switching and Protecting Distribution Circuits,” IEEE
l’runsuctions on Indirstty Applicarions, Vo1.33, No.6,
3. We would like to have the author’s comments on why eqiiation November/December 1997, pp.1501-1511
(2) was selected for the calculation of the mean chopping level of 1.431 U.L.Swindler, P.Scwartz, P.S.Hmer and S.R.Lmhert,
the breaker that usc Cu-Cr contacts7 The units for thhc parameters “Transient Recovery Voltage Considerations in the
0 and q are to be stated fur the reader’s better undcrstanding of Application of Medium-Voltage Circuit Drcakers,” B E E
the eqnation’s physical inclining. The dependency of thc chopping Trunsuctions on Indirstty Applications, Vo1.33, No.2,
current on the moment of contact opening the chopping current MarcWApril 1997, pp.383-388
was stated in the paper. Could the authors show thc way how to [A41 A.KeinniQcr, “The Effect of Protection Devices against
includc tlus characteristic into the proposed method7 It is Surges When Switching on Large AC Motors,” Blcctric
considered when the type of a contact material of the hrcaker is Muchines and Power Svstems, 20.103-1 12, 1992,
fixed, the mean value and thc standard deviation of the chopping Heinispherc Publishing Corporation
cwent could be estimated [ N I

4. Could the authors show the way how to includc the statistical
properties of the withstand voltage in the proposed model? In Ogiiz A. Soysal (Frostburg State University, MD, USA):
equation ( 3 ) , the speed of contact separation is considered to he I would like to congratulate the authors for thcir work.
constant. This speed might vary \nth t h e . At the t h e to start Vacuum circuit hrcakers are preferred in many industrial
moving it might be rclativcly low and then become higher. Also, medium-voltage systems; however, thcir major limitation
the withstand voltage might he considered to be nonlinearly appears to he the probability of current chopping and arc
dependent on the gap distance rather than lincarly. For instancc, reignition, particularly during the interruption of inductive
the wiIhstand voltage might saturate or might he the exponential currents. I agree that RC circuits uscd in addition to surge
function of the gap distance, where the exponent equals 1/2 or 314. arresters improve the transformer protection in such systems
by reducinglhe risk of reignition in vacuum circuit breakers,
5 . The condition of the reopening is.
- the slope of the current at zero has a value lower than (not and partial internal resonance on transformer windings.
“then”) the critical current slope,
- tbc magnitude of the high frequency current is lower than the The paper suggests choosing lhe surge capacitancc and
high frequency chopping level. resistor values by cquation (4), which is based on stored
Is thc high frequency chopping level in the second condition, a magnetic and electrostatic energy at power frequcncy. The
constant parameter or that calculated from the equation (2) with f= main purpose of these RC circuits is to filter the high
high frequency? frequency components that arise during switching transients.
1324

Experience with various industrial networks has shown that comments wc would like to start with the comment that the
selection of the capacitor and resistance values affects the point of this work was to introduce dangerous transformer
transient behavior of the whole system. As the authors switching transients that can appear when the circuit is
indicated, for smaller capacitance values the magnitude of the switched by a vacuum circuit breaker and a way of their
reignition current will be smaller. Or, in other words, a larger suppression.
value of capacitance would result in a larger reignition
current, Consequently, there must be an optimum T. Funabashi, Y . Matsui, A. Ametani:
combination of R and C parameters that would provide an Ouestions 1. 6, 8, I n (0.Soysal):
effective protection. In fact, while (4) and (5) provide an The exprcssion for C, is derived (as mention in the paper) by
initial guess for R and C values, the paper suggests keeping equating the stored magnetic energy in the transformer with
the surge capacitor as small as possible. thc stored electric energy in the prolcctive capacitor at linear
magnetising induclance. Some limitations are considered, but
1 would appreciate comments o f t h e authors on the following the calculated values does not differ a lot from those used in
questions: practice. From a physical point of view after the magnetising
currcnt has been chopped the flux-current characteristics is
Could the authors explain how they determine the final above the steady state hystercsis curve and ends with residual
design parameters? flux. Therelore not all from the released magnetic energy will
1 understand that the presented simulation results are charge the protective capacitor. In order to derive an exact
obtained for RC values selected by using (4) and (5). expression it is inevitable for particular transformer measured
Were other simulations made for different combinations B-H loops to be considercd [C3,C4] in ordcr to calculate the
(for example using smaller capacitors) to search for an exact released energy that charges the capacitor. According
optimum RC circuit? to referencc [I31 (pp.81-84) and [ l l ] the following equations
Transformers are usually designed to withstand transient are used:
overvoltages up to the basic insulation level (BIL)
defined in standards for each system voltage. Would it
be more appropriate to consider this voltage level in
determination of the RC values?
The transformer model used in this study is apparently where Lpt is the magnetizing inductance (linear) at rated
based on the rated values at power frequency. High magnetizing current io and uq is the rated transformer phase
frequency performance of transformers has, however, a voltage. The capacitance is expressed as:
significant effect on the system transients. I believe that
wide frequency range representation of transformers L,io' where V=k U,,J is the maximum overvoltage.
C,$= 7
such as presented in [A] and [B] would be more U
appropriate in the study of surge phenomena. What is the The transformer data were taken for a transformer type Y,d5.
authors' opinion about implementation of a transformer If the type of connection of the primary windings is different,
model based on terminal impedance characteristics in the then different expression for the protective capacitor can be
simulation of switching operations? derivcd. Fig. i l shows simulation of the primary voltages with
the paramcters in Table 11. Referencc [ I I]proposes a valuc oE
[A] Soysal, A. 0. "A Method for Wide Frequency Range suppression resistor greater then a half of the value calculated
Modeling of Power Transformers and Rotating hy (5). Our study showed that better suppression is madc if
Machines," IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, Vol. 8, No.
thc value is chosen by (5).
4, Oct. 1993.
[B] Soysal, A. 0. and Semlyen, A. "Practical Transfer
Function Estimation and its Application to Wide lo4
Frequency Range Representation of Transformers," 15,

IEEE Trans. on Power Delivery, Vol. 8, No. 3, July .. .. .. ,

1993.

Marjan Popov, member, University St. Cyril and

Methodious, Skopje, Department of Electrical Engineering,
P.O. Box 574, Republic of Macedonia,
Enrique Acha, member, The University of Glasgow,
Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics,
Scotland, UK:
. .. .. . . .

'I
The authors kindly appreciate the thoughtful remarks of the 0 0,001 0002 0003 0 004 0.005 0006 0 007 0 000 0009 0.01
discussers that can hopefully lead to further interest and lima Is]
-
improvement of this kind of studies. In reply to discussers Fig, il Primary phase voltage after suppression
 1325

200
2. So far it is well known that the Mayr-Cassic equations , , , ,
dominate in the representation of SF6 CB arcs. An approach -s .-..-.-
, , , ,

of this kind of model for gas blast CB reactor switching is

given in [91. When switching oflsmall inductive currents with
a VB arc voltage drop is small (13-25 V) and the current is
0

.2w
2:'"
,
,

,
,
.
,
.
,
,
- d
chopped before natural currenl zero. Generated overvoltages
depend on the chopping currcnt and hf reignitions. The
amount of reignitions depends on the peak overvoltage due to
the chopping, critical current slope at hf currenl zero, type of -21 ' I
O..r0.1 02 0.3 0.4 0.6 06 0.7 0.6 0.9 1
the load (for example length of the buses can influence the
amount o l reignition) and moment of contact opening. When
switching off high vacuum arcs, a modcl of post-acro current
is needed. This modcl is in different time scale (a few Ls
rather 100 ps) and is bascd on dynamic plasma equation ICs, -21 ' I
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 07 0.6 0.9 1
GI. time js) x 10~?
3. The chopping current calculated according to expression Fig. i2. Siinulatcd CB reignited current, CU voltagc and load side
(2) is in a good agreement with that calculated by expression vollage
used in [I]:
.
i, = a - bi - c l o g Z,,
where a,b,c
.
are constants which depend on the contact
material, i is the load current at the moment of contact
opening and 2, is the surge impedance of thc load thal is
switched. The validity of this expression is limited for load -100
3.25 326 3.27 3.28 3.29 3.3 331 3.32 3.33 3.Y 3.35
currents between 45-170 A, so we followed the approach in x io*
40'
reference [4,14] where chopping current is calculated by
expression (2). Complete research for this expression is done
in [CI], and it is calculated according to rcference 11,141.
According to the measurements [C7] of the chopping current
behaviour it cBn be seen that the values vary in a wide range.
The calculated values by our approach in motor switching I . , . . I
LLL_L
circuits vary between 3-7 A. In our example the switched
currents are io = 1.25 A. This is Car below the chopping
currcnt level of the modern VB so the current is chopped
immcdiatcly.
4. Implementation of a variable speed of contact motion is
possible if additional data are known: the force of opening Smeets R.P.P.: Low Current Behaviour and
spring, the mass of mechanism and movable contacl, the Current Chopping of Vncuum Arcs, Ph.D., 'IU
rigidity of CB mechanism etc. Recovery of the full dielectric Eindhoven, 1987.
slrenglh after arc cxtinguishing in vacuum takes place for a Smects R.P.P.: Essential Parameters of Vacuum
very short time (4-8 !.IS), so the reignition is possible when the Interrupters and Circuit Related to Occurrcnce of
contacts open shortly before current zero. Since the gap in Virtual Current Chopping in Motor Circuils,
that time is vcsy small, thc withstand voltage is significant for International Symposium on Power and Energy,
the all process up to the full gap distance. We considered the Sapporo, Japan 1993.
niost sever case when the withstand voltage is zero, although Tuohy E.J., Panek J.: Chopping of Transformer
it does have some value which is normally taken to be I kV. Magnetising Currents, Part I: Single Phase
Stalistical properties of the withstand voltage can be Transformers, IEEE Trans. On PAS, PAS-97, No.1
considcred by including SO% values of the measured Jan/Fcb 1978.
statisLica1 distributions [14]. W.M.C. van den Heuvel, at.al.: Interruption of a Dsy-
5 . The hf-chopping level due to lack of information is Type Transformer in No-load by a Vacuum Circuit
considered constant. Breakers, EUT Report 83-E-141, Eindhovcn 1983,
In gcncral, the discussors expressed their concern about the ISBN 90-6144- 141-2.
CB model. In order to prove further the validity of our Childs SE., Crccnwood A.N.: A modcl Cor DC
approach for the test circuit use in [4,14] measured interruption in diffuse vacuum arcs, IEEE Trans,
characteristics proposed by Glinkowski at al. [5], with a 1980, PS-8, pp, 289-294.
variable critical slope at hf current zero were implemented in Childs S.E., Greenwood A.N.: Events Associated
the model and the results are presented in Fig.i2 and Fig.13. with Zero Current Passage During thc Rapid
These results show good agrecment with the measuscd givcn Commutation of Vacuum Arcs, IEEE Trans, 1983,
in reference IC21 and sirnulaled given reference 14, 141. PS-11, pp. I8 1-188.
1326

[C7]. Gibbs J.D., at al.: Investigation of Prestriking and which is below the chopping level, system BIL might be
Current Chopping in Medium Voltagc SF6 and considcred. However in the motor circuits [CZJ where thc
Rotating Arc Vacuum Switchgear, IEEE Trans. On rated current is above the chopping level, different chopping
PWD, Vo1.4 No. I , Jan. 1989. levels lead to different overvoltage levels, so we think that the
estimated overvoltage level is more accurate for calculation
0. Soysal: of the paramcters of protective elements.
Thc discussion by prof. Soysal addresses a few questions 4. Reignitions in vacuum contain high frequency components
that strongly helps in the further improvement and research that can be in the range of a few kHz up to MHz level. For a
in this field. study of a high frequency behaviour high frequency
transformcr model would be more appropriate. If the contacts
2. Simulations with different parametcrs havc been performed open so Pdr before current zero that no rcignitions occur, then
but no research has been donc in order to find the optimum the only load that is seen by the CB is the transformer core.
RC circuit. The best suppression was providcd for thc So the transformer model should consider the non-linearity of
parametcrs of the RC branch which give time constants the core [C3, CSl.
around 10 ps,
3. Thc generated overvoltages depend on thc chopping level [CS]. Ihara S, Panek J., Tuohy E.J.: Chopping of
of the circuit breaker which is not related to the transformer Transformer Magnctising Currents, Part 11: Single
(and system) BIL in gcneral. Since in this case we had Phase Transformers, IEEE Trans. On PAS, PAS-102,
transformer under no-load, that has a magnetising current No.5 May 1983.