Miniature Circuit Breaker (MCB)

An MCB or miniature circuit breaker is an electromagnetic device

whose functions is to switch the circuit automatically when the
current passing through it exceeds the value for which it is set.
Construction of an MCB
• An MCB embodies complete enclosure in a moulded insulating
material. This provides mechanically strong and insulated housing.
The switching system consists of a fixed and a moving contact to
which incoming and outgoing wires are connected. The metal or
current carrying parts are made up of electrolytic copper or silver
alloy depending on the rating of the circuit breaker.
• As the contacts are separated in the event of an overload or short
circuit situation, an electric arc is formed. All modern MCBs are
designed to handle arc interruption process where arc energy
extraction and its cooling are provided by metallic arc splitter
plates. These plates are held in a proper position by an insulating
material. Also, arc runner is provided to force the arc that is
produced between the main contacts.
• The operating mechanism consists of both magnetic tripping and
thermal tripping arrangements.
• The magnetic tripping arrangement essentially consists of a
composite magnetic system in which magnetic pull is developed
on the trip liver when there is a sufficient magnetic field produced
by the coil. In case of short circuits or heavy overloads, strong
magnetic field produced by the coils (solenoid) is sufficient to
attract the armature of trip liver.
• The thermal tripping arrangement consists of a bimetallic strip
where a coil of current carrying conductor is wound around the
bimetallic strip. The deflection of bimetallic strip activates the
tripping mechanism in case of certain overload conditions.
• The bimetal strips are made up of two different metals, usually
brass and steel. These are so designed such that they will not heat
the strip to the tripping point for normal currents, but if the
current is increased beyond rated value, strip is warmed, bent and
trips the latch. Bimetallic strips are chosen to provide particular
time delays under certain overloads.
 Operation of MCB
• Under normal working conditions, MCB operates as a switch
(manual one) to make the circuit ON or OFF. Under overload or
short circuit condition, it automatically operates or trips so that
current interruption takes place in the load circuit. The visual
indication of this trip can be observed by automatic movement of
the operating knob to OFF position. This automatic operation MCB
can be obtained in two ways as we have seen in MCB construction;
those are magnetic tripping and thermal tripping.
• Under overload condition, the current through the bimetal causes
to raise the temperature of it. The heat generated within the
bimetal itself enough to cause deflection due to thermal
expansion of metals. This deflection further releases the trip latch
and hence contacts get separated. In some MCBs, magnetic field
generated by the coil causes develop pull on bimetal such that it
deflection activates the tripping mechanism
• Under short circuit or heavy overload conditions, magnetic
tripping arrangement comes into the picture. Under normal
working condition, the slug is held in a position by light spring
because magnetic field generated by the coil is not sufficient to
attract the latch. When a fault current flows, the magnetic field
generated by the coil is sufficient to overcome the spring force
holding slug in position. And hence slug moves and then actuate
the tripping mechanism.
• A combination of both magnetic and thermal tripping mechanisms
are implemented in most of MCBs. In both magnetic and thermal
tripping operations, an arc is formed when the contacts start
separating. This arc is then forced into arc splitter plates via arc
runner. These arc splitter plates are also called arc chutes where
arc is formed into a series of arcs and at the same time energy
extracted and cools it. Hence this arrangement achieves the arc
extinction.
 Types of Miniature Circuit Breaker
 MCB’s are classified into three major types according to their
instantaneous tripping current.
1. Type B MCB
2. Type C MCB
3. Type D MCB
4. Type K MCB
5. Type Z MCB

Type B Type C Type D

1. Type B MCB: This type of MCB will trip instantly at a rate of three
to five times its rated current. These are normally used for
resistive or small inductive loads where switching surges are very
small. Therefore, these are suitable for residential or light
commercial installations.
2. Type C MCB: This type of MCB will trip instantly at a rate of five to
ten times its rated current. These are normally used for high
inductive loads where switching surges are high such as small
motors and florescent lighting. In such cases, type C MCBs are
preferred to handle higher value of short circuit currents.
Therefore, these are suitable for highly inductive commercial and
industrial installations.
3. Type D MCB: This type of MCB will trip instantly at a rate of ten to
twenty five times its rated current. These are normally used for
very high inductive loads where high inrush current are very
frequent. These are suitable for specific industrial and
commercial applications. The common examples of such
application include x-ray machines, UPS systems, industrial
welding equipment, large winding motors, etc.
 Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker (ELCB)
Current ELCB or Residual Current Circuit
Breaker(RCCB)
An Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker (ELCB) is a safety device used to
directly detect the leakage current to the Earth and cut the power
supply.
 Working of ELCB

ELCB comprises of a three winding transformer that has two primary

windings and also one secondary winding. Neutral & line wires work
as the two main windings. A wire wound coil is the minor winding.
The flow of current through the minor winding is “0” in the stable
condition. In this condition, the flux owed to the current over the
phase wire will be deactivated by the current through the neutral
wire, meanwhile the current, that flows from the phase will be
refunded to the neutral.
 Voltage Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker
 The working principle of voltage ELCB is quite simple. One terminal
of the relay coil is connected to the metal body of the equipment
to be protected against earth leakage and other terminal is
connected to the earth directly.
 If any insulation failure occurs or live phase wire touches the metal
body, of the equipment, there must be a voltage difference appears
across the terminal of the coil connected to the equipment body
and earth. This voltage difference produces a current to flow the
relay coil.

 If the voltage difference crosses, a predetermined limit, the current

through the relay becomes sufficient to actuate the relay for
tripping the associated circuit breaker to disconnect the power
supply to the equipment.

 The typicality of this device is, it can detect and protect only that
equipment or installation with which it is attached. It cannot detect
any leakage of insulation in other parts of the system.
 Moulded Case Circuit Breaker (MCCB)
• MCCB is an automatic electrical device used
to protect the electrical equipment from
overload, short circuit, instantaneous over
current and earth fault. It is an advanced
version of MCB (Miniature circuit breaker). It
is available from 32 Amps to 1600 Amps with
the voltage range of 230V to 1.1kV.

Construction of MCCB
Different parts of MCCB are as follows:
1. Arc chute
2. Moving contact
3. Terminal connector
4. Overload trip or bimetallic contact
5. Handle knob
1. Arc chute: It is a stack of mutually insulated parallel metal
plates that used to divide the arc being developed in the
moulded case circuit breaker. Arc chute material is made up
of steel and glass fiber material.
2. Moving contact: An electrolyzed brass material is used as a
moving contact.
3. Terminal connector: The terminal connector is a bolt
assembly, made up of steel material. It is used to connect the
external circuit with the MCCB.
4. Bimetallic contact: A temperature-sensitive component, the
composition of steel and copper material is used as
bimetallic contact. Bimetallic contact is assembled in series
with the line current. It is used to trip the breaker under an
overload condition.
5. Handle Knob: It is used to close or open the contact
manually. Also, you cannot force to stop the breaker tripping
by holding knob at the top side. It is called a free trip.
 Operation of MCCB
 The MCCB working principle is simple. Let us take different fault
conditions such as Overload and short circuit
Overload Trip
• A flow of current that exceeds the rated current with predefined
time limit such a fault is called overload. Actually, it is not a fault, it
is a condition.
• The bimetallic contact involves in overload operation of the
breaker; under the normal condition, it allows the current flow. If
the current flow exceeds the predefined value, then it will get
bend and finally, it will engage the tripping mechanism. The trip
mechanism opens the breaker.
• Also, bimetallic contact will not allow the breaker to reset
instantly. Since it takes some time to reach its original state.
 Short circuit trip
• An electromagnetic coil involves short circuit/instantaneous/earth
fault protection of the breaker. Under normal conditions, the CT
generates less current hence the electromagnetic field is
generated by the coil is not enough to pull the plunger. Therefore,
the breaker does not trip.
• During short circuit or instantaneous fault conditions, the CT
generates high current and the coil creates a strong magnetic
field. Hence the coil pulls the plunger and it will trip the circuit
instantly.
• The output of the current transformer will be connected in star.
Under normal conditions, the current flow through the star’s
neural point will be zero. if the leakage found in the line means,
the same will be sensed at the star terminal. if the leakage flow is
higher than the allowable limit means, the MCCB trip the circuit.
Applications:
• It is used for many induction motor’s starters such as star-delta,
DOL starter, Soft starter etc,
• MCCBs are suitable for the controlling LT capacitors for power
factor correction.
• MCCBs provide protection to welding circuits in terms of overloads
and short circuits
• MCCBs are ideally suited for protection of outgoing feeder circuits
of distribution boards.

 Regardless of similar construction and operating mechanisms, it’s

current rating and interrupting capacity is higher than that of MCB.
 Air Circuit Breaker
• It is a circuit breaker with compressed air as arc quenching
medium to exterminate the arc produced when the contacts are
separated.
• High resistance principle is employed in such circuit breaker. The
arc is rapidly lengthened by means of the arc runners and arc
chutes and arc resistance is increased by cooling, lengthening and
splitting the arc.
• Air break circuit breakers are employed in dc circuits and ac
circuits up to 12,000 volts. Such breakers are usually of indoor
type. AC circuit breakers are widely employed in indoor medium
voltage and low voltage switchgear.
 1. Plain break type air break CB
• It is the simplest one in which contacts are made in the shape of
two horns. The air initially strikes across the shortest distance
between the horns and is driven steadily upwards by the
convection currents caused by heating of air during arcing and the
interaction of the magnetic and the electric fields. The arc extends
from one tip to the other when the horns are fully separated
resulting in lengthening and cooling arc.

• The relative slowness of the

process and the possibility of arc
spreading of adjacent metal works
limits the application of about 500V
and too low power circuits.
 2. Magnetic blow-out type Air CB
• Some air circuit breakers are used in the circuits having voltage up
to 11 KV, the arc extinction is accomplished using magnetic field
provided by the current in blowout coils connected in series with
the circuit being interrupted. Such coils are called blow out the
coil. The magnetic field itself does not extinguish the arc. It simply
moves the arc into chutes where the arc is lengthened, cooled and
extinguished.

• The arc shields prevent arc

spreading to an adjacent
network. It is important to
connect the coils at correct
polarity so that the arc is directed
upwards.
 3. Arc-chute Air circuit breaker
• The normal arrangement of air-chute air break circuit breaker
employed for low and medium voltage circuits is shown in the
figure below. There are two sets of contacts called the main
contacts and arcing or auxiliary contacts. Main contacts are
usually of copper and conduct the current in the closed position
of the breakers. They have low contact resistance and are silver
plated.
• The arcing contacts are hard, heat resistant and usually of copper
alloy. Arcing contacts are used to relieve the main contacts from
damage due to arcing. The arcing contacts are easily renewable
when required. The auxiliary and arcing contacts close before and
open after the main contacts during the operation.
• When the contact has come in contact with the relatively cool
surfaces of the steel plants gets rapidly and effectively cooled. The
movement of the arc may be naturally or aided by a magnetic
blowout. Thus, the arc is extinguished by lengthening and
increasing the power loss of the arc.
• When the fault occurs, the main contacts are separate first, and
the current is shifted to the arcing contacts. Now the arcing
contacts are separate, and the arc is drawn between them. This
arc is forced upwards by the electromagnetic forces and thermal
action. The arc ends travel along the arc runner. The arc moves
upward and is split by the arc splitter plates. The arc is
extinguished by lengthening, cooling, splitting, etc.
 4. Air blast circuit breaker
• In axial blast type circuit breaker, the flow of air is longitudinal
along the arc. The essential components of a typical axial-blast
circuit breaker are shown in Fig. 10.15. The fixed and moving
contacts are held in closed position by spring pressure under
normal operating conditions. The air reservoir tank is connected
to the arc chamber through an air valve, which is opened by a
tripping impulse
• On occurrence of a fault, the tripping impulse causes opening of
the air valve connecting the reservoir to the arcing chamber. The
air entering the arc chamber exerts pressure on the moving
contacts which move when the air pressure exceeds the spring
force. The moving contact is separated and an arc is struck. The air
flowing at a high speed axially along the arc causes removal of
heat from the periphery of the arc and the diameter of the arc
reduces to a low value at current zero. At this instant the arc is
interrupted and the contact space is flushed with fresh air
following through the nozzle.
Arc extinction process
• The flow of fresh air through the contact space ensures removal of
hot gases and rapid building up of dielectric strength. After the
brief duration of air flow, the interrupter is filled with high
pressure air. The dielectric strength of air increases with pressure.
Thus the fresh high pressure air in the contact space is capable of
withstanding the transient recovery voltage.
 Advantage and Disadvantage of ACB
Advantage
• Cheapness and free availability of the interrupting medium,
chemically stable and inertness of air
• Air blast circuit breakers have advantage of high speed
operation
• In air blast circuit breaker fire hazard is eliminated unlike in
oil circuit breakers
• Short and consistent arcing time and therefore, less burning
of contacts
• Air blast circuit breakers require less maintenance
• They are suitable for frequent operation
Disadvantage
• An air compressor plant has to be installed and maintained
• In air blast circuit breaker upon arc interruption, the air blast
circuit breaker produces a high level of noise when air is
discharged to the open atmosphere.
• Additional maintenance is required due to presence of Air
compressor.

Applications:
• They are used in the traction system because they are suitable
for repeated duty.
• They are also used for protection of small transformers.
 Oil Circuit Breaker
ARC EXTINCTION PHENOMENA
• The separating contacts of the breakers are made to separate
within an insulating oil, which has better insulating properties
than air.
• On occurrence of fault as the breaker contacts open under oil, an
arc is struck between them and the heat of the arc evaporates the
surrounding oil and dissociates it into a substantial volume of
gaseous hydrogen at high pressure.
.
• The oil is pushed away from
the arc and an expanding
hydrogen gas bubble surrounds
the arc region and adjacent
portion of the contacts, as shown
in fig
• The arc extinction is facilitated chiefly by two processes.
• Firstly, the hydrogen gas has high heat conductivity and cools the
arc.
• Secondly, the gas set up turbulence in oil and forces it into the
space between contacts after the final arc interruption at a current
zero and thus arcing products from the arc path are eliminated.
• The result is that arc is extinguished and the circuit current is
interrupted.
Advantages of Oil CB
1. Arc energy is absorbed in decomposing of oil.
2. The gas formed, which is mainly hydrogen, has a good cooling
properties.
3. The oil used is a very good insulator and allows smaller clearance
between line conductors and earth components.
 Disadvantages of Oil CB
1. Oil is inflammable and may cause fire hazards, if a defective oil
circuit breaker should fail under pressure and cause and explosion.
2. There is a risk of formation of explosive mixture with air.
3. Due to decomposition of oil in the arc, the oil becomes polluted by
carbon particles, which reduce its dielectric strength. Hence
periodical maintenance and replacement are required.

• The oil circuit breakers can be divided into:

1. Bulk oil circuit breaker
2. Minimum oil circuit breaker
 Bulk Oil circuit breaker
Construction
• It consists of current carrying contacts enclosed in a strong
earthed metal tank and immersed in oil, called the
transformer oil. The oil acts both as an arc extinguishing
medium and as an insulator between the live parts and earth.
• At the top of the oil air is filled in the seal vessel to serve in
cushion to accommodate the displaced oil on formation of gas
around the arc and also to absorb the mechanical shock of the
upward movement of oil.
• A gas outlet from the tan is essential and some form of vent is
fitted in the tank cover. The position of the vent is carefully chosen
so that the partially ionized gases which come out of the vent do
not harm the personnel and also do not cause flash-over to the
neighboring equipments.
Operation
• The plain break principle involves the simple process of separating
the current carrying contacts under oil with no special control over
the resulting arc other than the increase in length caused by the
moving contact.
• Under normal operating conditions, the fixed and moving
contacts remain closed and the breaker carries the normal circuit
current. On occurrence of a fault the moving contacts are pulled
down by the protective system and an arc is struck between the
contacts and a large amount of heat is liberated.
• The arc is extinguished when the distance between the fixed and
moving contacts reaches a certain critical value, depending upon
the arc current and recovery voltage.

 The plain break oil circuit breakers are widely employed on low
voltage dc and ac circuits. Such circuit breakers are not considered
suitable for short-circuit rating exceeding 250 MVA at 11KV.
 A 110KV, 3500 MVA breaker may need 8 to 12 thousand kg of oil,
while a breaker of the same rating output for 220 KV may need 50
thousand kg of oil.
 Minimum oil circuit breaker
• In the bulk oil circuit breakers discussed so far, the oil has to
perform two functions. Firstly, it acts as an arc quenching medium
and secondly, it insulates the live parts from earth. It has been
found that only a small percentage of oil is actually used for arc
extinction while the major part is utilized for insulation purposes.
For this reason, the quantity of oil in bulk oil circuit
breakers reaches a very high figure as the system voltage
increases. This not only increases the expenses, tank size and
weight of the breaker but it also increases the fire risk and
maintenance problems.
• The fact that only a small percentage of oil (about 10% of total) in
the bulk oil circuit breaker is actually used for arc extinction leads
to the question as to why the remainder of the oil, that is
not immediately surrounding the device, should not be omitted
with consequent saving in bulk, weight and fire risk. This led to
the development of low oil circuit breaker.
Fig: Minimum oil circuit breaker
 Construction
• The figure shows the cross section of a single phase minimum oil
circuit breaker. There are two compartments separated from each
other but both filled with oil. The upper chamber is the circuit
breaking chamber while the lower one is the supporting chamber.
The two chambers are separated by a partition and oil from one
chamber is prevented from mixing with the other chamber. This
arrangement permits two advantages. Firstly, the circuit breaking
chamber requires a small volume of oil which is just enough for arc
extinction. Secondly, the amount of oil to be replaced is reduced
as the oil in the supporting chamber does not get contaminated by
the arc.
i. Supporting chamber: It is a porcelain chamber mounted on a
metal chamber. It is filled with oil which is physically separated
from the oil in the circuit breaking compartment. The oil inside
the supporting chamber and the annular space formed between
the porcelain insulation and bakelised paper is employed for
insulation purposes only.
(ii) Circuit-breaking chamber: It comprises a synthetic resin bonded
paper cylindrical enclosure within a porcelain insulator. It is filled
with oil and has the following parts :
(a) upper and lower fixed contacts
(b) moving contact
(c) turbulator
The moving contact is hollow and includes a cylinder which
moves down over a fixed piston. The turbulator is an arc control
device build up of oil-impregnated vulcanized fiber plates and has
both axial and radial vents. The axial venting ensures the
interruption of low currents whereas radial venting helps in the
interruption of heavy currents.
(iii) Top chamber: It is a metal chamber and is mounted on the
circuit-breaking chamber. It provides expansion space for the oil in
the circuit breaking compartment. The top chamber is also
provided with a separator which prevents any loss of oil by
centrifugal action caused by circuit breaker operation during fault
conditions.
 Operation
 Under normal operating conditions, the moving contact remains
engaged with the upper fixed contact. When a fault occurs, the moving
contact is pulled down by the tripping springs and an arc is struck. The
arc energy vaporizes the oil and produces gases under high pressure.
This action constrains the oil to pass through a central hole in the
moving contact and results in forcing series of oil through the respective
passages of the turbulator. The process of turbulation is orderly one, in
which the sections of the arc are successively quenched by the effect of
separate streams of oil moving across each section in turn and bearing
away its gases.
Advantages
• A low oil circuit breaker has the following advantages over a bulk oil
circuit breaker:
(i) It requires lesser quantity of oil.
(ii) It requires smaller space.
(iii) There is reduced risk of fire.
(iv) Maintenance problems are reduced.
 Disadvantages:
1. Increased degree of carbonization due to smaller quantity of oil.
2. Rapid deterioration of dielectric strength of oil due to high degree
of carbonization.
3. Difficulty in removal of gases from the contact space in time.
 SF6 Circuit Breaker
• In circuit breakers discussed so far (oil CB, air CB) the rate of
recovery of dielectric strength is relatively slow after the
movement of contact separation and hence the arc is usually
extinguished after few half cycles of current have passed zero.
• The prevention of arc reignition needs a high dielectric strength of
the arc path and its fast recovery after current zero.
• Vacuum CB and SF6 CB have better properties in this regard.
• SF6 gas is prepared by burning coarsely crushed sulphur in fluorine
gas, in a gas tight steel box.
• It is transported in liquid form in cylinder.
• SF6 is an electronegative gas having high dielectric strength and
excellent arc quenching properties. It is non poisonous, non-
explosive, inert, heavy gas.
• At 10 bar pressure, it liquefies at 15 degree Celsius and 5 bar at 4
degree Celsius. It is used in gaseous form in CB.
• As the gas is strongly electronegative free electrons are readily
removed from a discharge by the formation of negative ions
through process by which a free electron is attached to a neutral
gas molecule.
SF6 + e- SF6-
SF6 + e- SF5 + F-
ARC extinction Phenomena
• During the arcing period, SF6 gas is blown axially along the arc.
• The heat is removed from the arc due to axial convection and
radial dissipation.
• Consequently the arc diameter reduces, becomes small and
extinguishes during current zero.
• As the rate of recovery of dielectric strength is very high, the arc
will not restrike.
 Construction
• Such a circuit breaker essentially consists of two parts, namely
(i) the interrupter unit and (ii) the gas system.
The interrupter unit:
• It consists of fixed and moving contacts enclosed in a chamber
(called arc interruption chamber) containing SF6 gas. This chamber
is connected to the SF6 gas reservoir. When the contacts of breaker
are opened, the valve mechanism permits a high-pressure SF6 gas
from the reservoir to flow towards the arc interruption chamber.
• The fixed contact is a hollow cylindrical current carrying contact
fitted with an arcing horn. The moving contact is also a hollow
cylinder with rectangular holes in the sides to permit the SF6 gas to
let out through these holes after flowing along and across the arc.
The tips of fixed contact, moving a contact and arcing horn are
coated with copper-tungsten arc-resistant material. Since SF6 gas is
costly, it is reconditioned and reclaimed by a suitable auxiliary
system after each operation of the breaker.
The Gas system:
• Since the gas pressure is very high, a lot of care is to be taken to
prevent gas leakage at joints.
• The low and high-pressure systems are fitted with low-pressure
alarms and set of lockout switches which give a warning the
moment the gas pressure drops below a certain value because
otherwise there will be a reduction in the dielectric strength and
arc quenching ability of the breaker is endangered.
• The gas is stored in the high-pressure chamber at 16 atmospheres
whereas the gas pressure on the low-pressure side is 3
atmospheres.
• The temperature is 20◦C in order to prevent liquefaction of gas in
the high-pressure chamber at low temperature; a heater is fitted
in the high-pressure chamber. A thermostat is set to the switch on
when the ambient temperature falls below 16◦C.
 Advantage:
1. Non explosive and chemically inert.
2. No carbon byproducts to life of contacts.
3. Same gas is recirculated in the circuit thereby reducing the
requirement of SF6 gas. One triple pole, 145 KV SF6 CB needs only
about 30 kg of SF6 gas for first filling and no replacement is
required for about 5 years.
4. Minimum maintenance
5. Suitable for all applications including capacitor switching, motor
switching, line switching, faulty condition to interrupt the circuit.
Disadvantage:
1. Sealing problem: Imperfect joints may lead to leakage to SF6
2. SF6 gas is heavier than air and hence settles in the surrounding
and creates suffocation to some extent if leaked to atmosphere.
3. Arced SF6 is poisonous.
 Vacuum Circuit breaker
• A vacuum circuit breaker is a kind of circuit breaker where the arc
quenching takes place in vacuum medium. The operation of
switching on and closing of current carrying contacts and
interrelated arc interruption takes place in a vacuum chamber in
the breaker which is called vacuum interrupter.
• Idea behind circuit breaker is elimination of medium between the
contacts.
• Every medium that has pressure below atmospheric which is 760
mm of Hg, is known as vacuum. Low pressure are measured in Torr.
( 1 Torr=1 mm of Hg)
• For pressure of 10-4 to 10-6 torr, the breakdown voltage become
independent of gas density and depends on gap length only.
• The breakdown voltage of vacuum compared with air for one pair
of 9.4 mm diameter tungsten contacts arc given in Table:
 Construction
• It is very simple in construction as compared to any other circuit
breaker. Their construction is mainly divided into three parts, i.e., fixed
contacts, moving contact and arc shield which is placed inside the arc
interrupting chamber.
• The outer envelope of vacuum circuit breaker is made up of glass
because the glass envelope help in the examination of the breaker from
outside after the operation. If the glass becomes milky from its original
finish of silvery mirror, then it indicates that the breaker is losing
vacuum.
• The fixed and moving contacts of the breaker are placed inside the arc
shield. The pressure in a vacuum interrupter at the time of sealing off is
kept at about 10-6 torr. The moving contacts of the circuit breaker are
move through a distance of 5 to 10 mm depending upon the operating
voltage.
• The metallic bellows made of stainless steel is used to move the moving
contacts. The design of the metallic bellows is very important because
the life of the vacuum circuit breaker depends on the ability of the
component to perform repeated operations satisfactorily.
 Operation and arc extinction
• The cathode surface normally, is not perfectly smooth but have
many micro- projections. During the separation of contacts, the
current will be concentrated in these micro- projections as they
are the last point of the contact. Due to their small area of cross
section the projections will suffer explosive evaporation by
resistive heating and supply sufficient quantity of vapour for the
arc formation.
• The density of vapour depends on the current in the arcing. Due to
the decreasing mode of current wave their rate of release of
vapour fall and after the current zero, the medium regains its
dielectric strength provided vapour density around the contacts
reduced. Hence, the arc does not restrike again because the metal
vapour is quickly removed from the contact zone.

• It is used for the medium voltage between 11kv to 33kv.

 Advantage
• Vacuum circuit breaker does not require any additional filling of
oil or gas. They do not need periodic refilling.
• Rapid recovery of high dielectric strength on current interruptions
that only a half cycle or less arcing occurs after proper contact
separation.
• Breaker unit is compact and self-contained. It can be installed in
any required orientation.
• Because of the above reasons together with the economic
advantage offered, vacuum circuit breaker has high acceptance.
Disadvantage
• Requirements of high technology for production of vacuum
interrupters.
• Loss of vacuum due to transit damage or failure makes the entire
interrupter useless, and it cannot be repaired on site.
 Testing of circuit breaker
 Testing of circuit breaker is more difficult than the testing of other
electrical equipment like transformer or machine because the
short-circuit currents are very large. Testing of circuit breakers can
be classified into two main groups, (i) type tests and (ii) routine
tests.
 Type Tests: These tests are conducted on first few prototype circuit
breakers of each type for the purpose of proving the capabilities
and confirming the rated characteristics of the circuit breaker of
that design. Such tests are conducted in specially built testing
laboratories.
a) Mechanical tests: These are mechanical endurance type tests
involving repeated opening and closing of the breaker. A circuit
breaker must open and close at the correct speed and perform its
designated duty and operation without mechanical failure.
b) Thermal tests: Thermal tests are carried out to check the thermal
behavior of the breakers. The breaker under test is subjected to
steady state temperature rise due to flow of its rated current
through its poles in closed condition.
c) Dielectric tests: These tests are performed to check power
frequency and impulse voltage withstand capacity.
d) Short- Circuit tests: Circuit breakers are subjected to sudden
short- circuits in short- circuit test laboratories and oscillosgrams
are taken to know the behavior of the circuit breakers at the time
of switching –in, during contact breaking, and after arc extinction.
 Routine tests: Once type tests are conducted and a particular
design is found to be satisfactory the product becomes prototype
and a large number of circuit breakers of similar design are
manufactured. However, each and every circuit breaker is still
subjected to a few more tests before commissioning. These tests
are called routine tests.
The routine test includes (i) power frequency voltage test (ii)
millivolt test (iii) operational tests.
 HVDC circuit breaker
• The HVDC circuit breaker is a switching device that interrupts the flow of
abnormal direct current in the circuit. When the fault occurs in the
system, the mechanical contacts of the circuit breaker are pulled apart
and thus their circuit is open. In HVDC circuit breaker, circuit breaking is
difficult because the current flow through it is unidirectional and there is
no zero current.
• The main application of the HVDC circuit breaker is to interrupt the high
voltage direct current flows in the network. AC circuit breaker easily
interrupts the arc at natural current zero in the AC wave. At zero current,
the energy to be interrupted is also zero. The contact gap has to recover
the dielectric strength to withstand natural transient recovery voltage.
• With DC circuit breakers, the problem is more complex as the DC
waveform does not have natural current zeros. Forced arc interruption
would produce high transient recovery voltage and restrike without arc
interruption and ultimate destruction of the breaker contacts. In
designing of HVDC circuit breakers, there are three main problems to be
overcome. These problems are:
 Creation of artificial current zero.
 Prevention of restrikes arc.
 Dissipation of stored energy.

The artificial current zero principles are used in HVDC circuit

breakers for arc extinction. By introducing a parallel L-C
circuit, the arc current is subjected to oscillations. These
oscillations are severe and have several artificial current zeros.
The breaker extinguishes the arc at one of the artificial current
zeros. The crest current of the oscillation must be greater than the
direct current to be interrupted.
A series resonant circuit with L and C is connected across the main
contact M of a conventional DC circuit breaker through an
auxiliary contact S1, and resistor R is connected through contact
S2. Under normal operating conditions, main contact M and
charging contact S2 remain closed, and the capacitor C is charged
to line voltage through the high resistance R. Contact S1 is open
and has line voltage across it.
For interrupting main circuit current Id, the operating mechanism
open contact S2 and closes contact S1. This indicates discharge of
capacitor C through inductance L, main contact M and auxiliary
contact S1 setting up an oscillatory current shown in the figure
below. Thus, artificial current zeros are created, and the circuit
breaker main contact M is opened at a current zero. After that,
contact S1 is opened, and contact S2 is closed.
 Auto Reclosure
• An autorecloser is a circuit breaker equipped with a mechanism
that can automatically close the breaker after it has been
opened due to a fault. These are used on overhead distribution
systems to interrupt temporary faults. It has been found that
about 80% of the faults are transient faults which exist in a
system for a short time. This means these types of faults clear
themselves and line can be charged. In this case the autorecloser
restores the supply automatically by being closed and improves
service reliability.
• Auto‐reclosers are usually vacuum or SF6 breakers. They can be
programmed to give up to four trips, either instantaneously or
time delayed or both to suit the power system. The necessary
energy for the opening and closing springs is obtained from the
power line itself.
• Protective devices are installed in the network to protect the
network from damages which may take place in abnormal cases,
short circuit etc. Major problem exists in dealing with transient
faults. For e.g. a tree branch that is blown off a tree during
windstorm and lands on the line may cause a short circuit that
could cause damage. However, the fault will quickly clear itself as
the branch falls to the ground. If the only protection system is the
breakers at the substations/distribution centres, large areas of the
grid would be blacked out while the operating personnel reset the
breakers.
• Reclosers address this problem by further dividing up the network
into smaller sections. This means reclosers may be installed at
each branch. As the reclosers are installed at smaller sections, they
handle much less power than the breakers at feeder stations and
therefore can be set to trip at much lower power levels. This
means that a single event on the grid will cut off only the section
handled by the single recloser, long before the feeder station
would notice a problem. A normal breaker could also be used for
this role, but because they are distributed geographically
throughout the grid, as opposed to being centralized at feeder
stations, resetting a breaker might take considerable time and may
be too costly because of the manpower cost and travel cost. For
this reason reclosers are used to automatically re‐connect after a
brief interval. There is a strong likelihood that the fault will be
gone when the power is restored. If the fault is still present, the
recloser opens again.
• The control system for a recloser allows a selected number of
attempts to restore service after adjustable time delays. For
instance, a recloser may have 2 or 3 fast reclose operations with a
few seconds delay, then a longer delay and one reclose. If the last
attempt is not successful, the recloser will lock out and require
human intervention to reset. If the fault is a permanent fault
(downed wires, tree branches lying on line etc.) the fault needs to
be rectified and then to reset the recloser.
• Auto‐reclosers are made in single‐phase and three‐phase versions.
The ratings of reclosers run from 2.4 to 38 kV for load currents
from 10 – 1200 A and fault currents from 1 – 16 kA.