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Time Current Curves

Time-current curves graphically show the time it takes for an electrical circuit breaker to trip at a given current level. The graph uses logarithmic scales with current on the horizontal axis and time on the vertical axis. A example curve shows that a circuit breaker will trip within 0.6 seconds if current remains at 6 amps. The higher the current, the faster the breaker will trip. Time-current curves help determine overload and short circuit protection performance for circuit breakers.

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Sumit Verma
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206 views4 pages

Time Current Curves

Time-current curves graphically show the time it takes for an electrical circuit breaker to trip at a given current level. The graph uses logarithmic scales with current on the horizontal axis and time on the vertical axis. A example curve shows that a circuit breaker will trip within 0.6 seconds if current remains at 6 amps. The higher the current, the faster the breaker will trip. Time-current curves help determine overload and short circuit protection performance for circuit breakers.

Uploaded by

Sumit Verma
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Time-Current Curves
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Time-current curves are used to show how f ast a breaker will trip at any magnitude of current. T he f ollowing illustration shows how a time-current curve works. T he f igures along the bottom (horizontal axis) represent current in amperes. T he f igures along the lef t side (vertical axis) represent time in seconds. To determine how long a breaker will take to trip at a given current, f ind the level of current on the bottom of the graph. Draw a vertical line to the point where it intersects the curve. T hen draw a horizontal line to the lef t side of the graph and f ind the time to trip. For example, in this illustration a circuit breaker will trip when current remains at 6 amps f or 0.6 seconds. It can be seen that the higher the current, the shorter the time the circuit breaker will remain closed. It can be seen f rom the time-current curve on the f ollowing page that actual time-current curves are drawn on log-log paper, and the horizontal line is in multiples of the breakers continuous current rating. From the inf ormation box in the upper right hand corner, note that the time-current curve illustrated on the f ollowing page def ines the operation of a CFD6 circuit breaker. For this example a 200 ampere trip unit is selected.

Overload prot ect ion component of t he t ime-current curve


T he top part of the time-current curve shows the perf ormance of the overload trip component of the circuit breaker. Time-current curves are shown as bands, and the actual perf ormance of any one breaker can f all anywhere within the band. Using the example CFD6 breaker and 200 ampere trip unit, the time the breaker will trip f or any given overload can easily be determined using the same procedure as previously discussed. For example, the breaker will trip between 25 seconds and 175 seconds at 600 amps with a 40C ambient temperature, which is 3 times the the trip unit rating.

T his is illustrated by the time-current curve below.

Inst ant aneous t rip component of t he t ime-current curve


T he bottom part of the time-current curve shows the perf ormance of the instantaneous trip component (short circuit) of the circuit breaker. T he maximum clearing time (time it takes f or breakers to completely open) decreases as current increases. T his is because of the blow-apart contact design which utilizes the magnetic f ield built-up around the contacts. As current increases the magnetic f ield strength increases, which aids in opening the contacts. T his circuit breaker has an adjustable instantaneous trip point f rom 900 A to 2000 A, which is 4.5 to 10 times the 200 A trip unit rating. If the trip point adjustment is set to minimum (900 A), and a f ault current of 900 amps or greater occurs, the breaker will trip within 1 cycle (16.8 ms). If the trip point setting is set to maximum (2000 A), and a f ault current of 900 amps occurs, the breaker will trip between approximately 12 and 55 seconds. A greater f ault current will cause the breaker to trip f aster.

SOURCE: Siemens

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