EE6702 – PROTECTION AND SWITCHGEARS Department of EEE 2017-2018

UNIT V CIRCUIT BREAKERS

SF6 circuit breaker.

At this point we are aware that the medium in which arc extinction of the circuit breaker
takes place greatly influences the important characteristics and life of the circuit
breaker. the working of a vacuum circuit breaker was illustrated. We already
know that the use of vacuum circuit breaker is mainly restricted to system voltage

below 38 kV. The characteristics of vacuum as medium and cost of the vacuum CB
does not makes it suitable for voltage exceeding 38 kV. In the past for higher
transmission voltage Oil Circuit Breaker (OCB) and Air Blast Circuit Breaker (ABCB)
were used. These days for higher transmission voltage levels SF6 Circuit Breakers are
largely used. OCB and ABCB have almost become obsolete.
In fact in many installations SF6 CB is used for lower voltages like 11 kV, 6 kV
etc.. i)sulphur Hexafluoride symbolically written as SF6 is a gas which satisfy the
requirements of an ideal arc interrupting medium. So SF6 is extensively used these days
as an arc interrupting medium in circuit breakers ranging from 3 kv upto 765 kv class. In
addition to this SF6 is used in many electrical equipments for insulation. Here

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first we discuss in brief, some of the essential properties of SF6 which is the reason of
it's extensive use in circuit breakers. SF6 gas has high dielectric strength which is the
most important quality of a material for use in electrical equipments and in particular
for breaker it is one of the most desired properties. Moreover it has high Rate of Rise
of dielectric strength after arc extinction.
CONSTRUCTION and PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION

The construction and working principles of SF6 circuit breaker varies from
manufacturer to manufacturer. In the past double pressure type of SF6 breakers were used.
Now these are obsolete. Another type of SF6 breaker design is the self blast type,
which is usually used for medium transmission voltage. The Puffer type SF6 breakers of
single pressure type are the most favored types prevalent in power industry. Here the
working principle of Puffer type breaker is illustrated As illustrated in the figure the
breaker has a cylinder and piston arrangement. Here the piston is fixed but the cylinder
is movable. The cylinder is tied to the moving contact so that for opening the breaker the
cylinder along with the moving contact moves away from the fixed contact (Fig-A(b)). But
due to the presence of fixed piston the SF6 gas inside the cylinder is compressed. The
compressed SFe gas flows through the nozzle and over the electric arc in axial
direction. Due to heat convection and radiation the arc radius reduces gradually and the arc
is finally extinguished at current zero.

The dielectric strength of the medium between the separated contacts increases rapidly
and restored quickly as fresh SF6 gas fills the space. While arc quenching, small
quantity of SF6 gas is broken down to some other fluorides of sulphur which mostly

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recombine to form SF6 again. A filter is also suitably placed in the interrupter to
absorb the remaining decomposed by product.
The gas pressure inside the cylinder is maintained at around 5 kgf per sq. cm. At
higher pressure the dielectric strength of the gas increases. But at higher pressure the
SF6 gas liquify at higher temperature which is undesired. So heater is required to be
arranged for automatic control of the temperature for circuit breakers where higher
pressure is utilised. If the SF6 gas will liquify then it loses the ability to quench the arc.
Like vacuum breaker, SF6 breakers are also available in modular design form so that
two modules connected in series can be used for higher voltage levels. SF6 breakers are
available as both live tank and dead tank types. In Fig-above a live tank
outdoor type 400 kV SF6 breaker is shown.
This characteristics is very much sought for a circuit breaker to avoid restriking.
SF6 is colour less, odour less and non toxic gas.
SF6 is an inert gas. So in normal operating condition the metallic parts in
contact with the gas are not corroded. This ensures the life of the breaker and reduces
the need for maintenance.
SF6 has high thermal conductivity which means the heat dissipation capacity is
more. This implies greater current carrying capacity when surrounded by SF6 .
The gas is quite stable. However it disintegrates to other fluorides of Sulphur in
the presence of arc. but after the extinction of the arc the SF6 gas is reformed from the
decomposition.
SF6 being non-flammable so there is no risk of fire hazard and explosion.
A sulphur hexafluoride circuit breaker uses contacts surrounded by sulfur
hexafluoride gas to quench the arc. They are most often used for transmission-level
voltages and may be incorporated into compact gas-insulated switchgear. In cold climates,
supplemental heating or de-rating of the circuit breakers may be required due to
liquefaction of the SF6 gas.
Advantages:
Due to superior arc quenching property of sf6 , such breakers have very short
arcing time

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Dielectric strength of sf6 gas is 2 to 3 times that of air, such breakers can
interrupt much larger currents.
Gives noiseless operation due to its closed gas circuit
Closed gas enclosure keeps the interior dry so that there is no moisture problem
There is no risk of fire as sf6 is non-inflammable
There are no carbon deposits
Low maintenance cost, light foundation requirements and minimum auxiliary
equipment
sf6 breakers are totally enclosed and sealed from atmosphere, they are
particularly suitable where explosion hazard exists
Disadvantages:
sf6 breakers are costly due to high cost of sf6
sf6 gas has to be reconditioned after every operation of the breaker, additional
equipment is required for this purpose
(16)
Vacuum circuit breakers
In this breaker, vacuum is being used as the arc quenching medium. Vacuum
offers highest insulating strength, it has far superior arc quenching properties than any
other medium. When contacts of a breaker are opened in vacuum, the interruption
occurs at first current zero with dielectric strength between the contacts building up at
a rate thousands of times that obtained with other circuit breakers. Principle: When
the contacts of the breaker are opened in vacuum (10 -7 to 10 -5 torr), an arc is
produced between the contacts by the ionization of metal vapours of contacts. The arc
is quickly extinguished because the metallic vapours, electrons, and ions produced
during arc condense quickly on the surfaces of the circuit breaker contacts, resulting
in quick recovery of dielectric strength. As soon as the arc is produced in vacuum, it is
quickly extinguished due to the fast rate of recovery of dielectric strength in vacuum
Construction:
Fig shows the parts of a typical vacuum circuit breaker. It consists of fixed contact,
moving contact and arc shield mounted inside a vacuum chamber. The movable
member is connected to the control mechanism by stainless steel bellows

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This enables the permanent sealing of the vacuum chamber so as to eliminate the
possibility of leak .A glass vessel or ceramic vessel is used as the outer insulating body.
The arc shield prevents the deterioration of the internal dielectric strength by preventing
metallic vapours falling on the inside surface of the outer insulating cover.

Working:
When the breaker operates the moving contacts separates from the fixed
contacts and an arc is struck between the contacts. The production of arc is due to the
ionization of metal ions and depends very much upon the material of contacts. The arc
is quickly extinguished because the metallic vapours, electrons and ions produced
during arc are diffused in short time and seized by the surfaces of moving and fixed
members and shields. Since vacuum has very fast rate of recovery of dielectric
strength, the arc extinction in a vacuum breaker occurs with a short contact separation.
Advantages:
They are compact, reliable and have longer life.
There are no fire hazards
There is no generation of gas during and after operation
They can interrupt any fault current. The outstanding feature of a VCB is that it
can break any heavy fault current perfectly just before the contacts reach the definite
open position.
They require little maintenance and are quiet in operation
Can withstand lightning surges

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Low arc energy

Low inertia and hence require smaller power for control mechanism.
Applications:
For outdoor applications ranging from 22 kV to 66 kV. Suitable for majority of
applications in rural area.

Oil Circuit Breaker

1) Bulk oil circuit breakers
which use a large quantity of oil. In this circuit breaker the oil serves two purposes.
Firstly it extinguishes the arc during opening of contacts and secondly it insulates the
current conducting parts from one another and from the earthed tank. Such circuit
breakers are classified into:
Plain oil circuit breakers
Arc control circuit breakers
In the former type no means is available for controlling the arc and the contacts are
exposed to the whole of the oil in the tank. In the latter special arc control devices are
employed to get the beneficial action of the arc as efficiently as possible
2) Low (Minimum) oil circuit breakers
Which use minimum amount of oil. In such circuit breakers oil is used only for arc
extinction, the current conducting parts are insulated by air or porcelain or organic
insulating material.
Construction
There are two chambers in a low oil circuit breaker; the oil in each chamber is
separated from each other. The main advantage of this is that low oil is required and
oil in second chamber won„t get polluted. Upper chamber is called the circuit breaker
chamber and lower one is called the supporting chamber. Circuit breaking chamber
consists of moving contact and fixed contact. Moving contact is connected with a

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piston it„s just for the movement of the contact and no pressure build due to its
motion. There are two vents on fixed contact they are axial ve nt for small current
produced in oil due to heating of arc and radial vents for large currents. The whole
device is covered using Bakelite paper and porcelain for protection. Vents are placed
in a tabulator.
Operation
Under normal operating conditions, the moving contacts remain 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 vaporizes 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 tabulation is orderly one, in which the sections of arc
are successively quenched by the effect of separate streams of oil, moving across each
section in turn and bearing away its gases 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 tabulation is orderly one, in which the

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sections of 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 following advantages compared to bulk oil
circuit breaker
It requires lesser quantity of oil
It requires smaller space
There is reduced risk of fire
Maintenance problems are reduced
Disadvantages
Low oil circuit breaker has following disadvantages compared to bulk oil
circuit breaker
Due to smaller quantity of oil, the degree of carbonization is increased
There is a difficulty of removing the gases from the contact space in time
The dielectric strength of oil deteriorates rapidly due to high degree of
carbonization.

Air blast circuit breaker

This type of circuit breakers, is those kind of circuit breaker which operates in air at
atmospheric pressure. After development of oil circuit breaker, the medium voltage air
circuit breaker (ACB) is replaced completely by oil circuit breaker in different
countries. But in countries like France and Italy, ACBs are still preferable choice up to
voltage 15 KV. It is also good choice to avoid the risk of oil fire, in case of oil circuit
breaker. In America ACBs were exclusively used for the system up to 15 KV until the
development of new vacuum and SF6 circuit breakers.
Working principle of air circuit breaker(ACB)
The working principle of this breaker is rather different from those in any other types
of circuit breakers. The main aim of all kind of circuit breaker is to prevent the
reestablishment of arcing after current zero by creating a situation where in the contact
gap will withstand the system recovery voltage. The air circuit breaker does the same
but in different manner. For interrupting arc it creates an arc voltage in excess of the

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supply voltage. Arc voltage is defined as the minimum voltage required maintaining
the arc. This circuit breaker increases the arc voltage by mainly three different ways,
1. It may increase the arc voltage by cooling the arc plasma. As the temperature of arc
plasma is decreased, the mobility of the particle in arc plasma is reduced, hence more
voltage gradient is required to maintain the arc.
2. It may increase the arc voltage by lengthening the arc path. As the length of arc
path is increased, the resistance of the path is increased, and hence to maintain the
same arc current more voltage is required to be applied across the arc path. That
means arc voltage is increased.
3. Splitting up the arc into a number of series arcs also increases the arc voltage.
The first objective is usually achieved by forcing the arc into contact with as large an
area as possible of insulating material. Every air circuit breaker is fitted with a
chamber surrounding the contact. This chamber is called „arc chute‟. The arc is driven
into it. If inside of the arc chute is suitably shaped, and if the arc can conform to the
shape, the arc chute wall will help to achieve cooling. This type of arc chute should be
made from some kind of refractory material
The second objective that is lengthening the arc path is achieved concurrently with the
first objective. If the inner walls of the arc chute is shaped in such a way that the arc is
not only forced into close proximity with it but also driven into a serpentine channel
projected on the arc chute wall. The lengthening of the arc path increases the arc
resistance.
The third objective is achieved by using metal arc slitter inside the arc chute. The
main arc chute is divided into numbers of small compartments by using metallic
separation plates. These metallic separation plates are actually the arc splitters and
each of the small compartments behaves as individual mini arc chute. In this system
the initial arc is split into a number of series arcs, each of which will have its own
mini arc chute.
1. Main contacts 4. Arc splitter plates
2. Arcing contacts 5.Current carrying terminals
3. Arc rifling in the direction of the arrow 6. Arc runners Arc getting split

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In the air reservoir there is a high pressure air stored between 20 to 30 kg/cm2. And
that air is taken from compressed air system. On the reservoir there are three hollow
insulator columns mounted with valves at their base. On the top of the hollow
insulator chambers there are double arc extinguishing chambers mounted. The current
carrying parts connect the three arc extinction chambers to each other in series and the
pole to the neighboring equipment, since there exist a very high voltage between the
conductor and the air reservoir, the entire arc extinction chamber assembly is mounted
on insulators. Since there are three double arc extinction poles in series, there are six
breakers per pole. Each arc extinction chamber consists of one twin fixed contact.
There are two moving contacts. The moving contacts can move axially so as to open
or close. Its opening or closing mechanism depends on spring pressure and air pressure.

The operation mechanism operates the rods when it gets a pneumatic or electrical signal.
The valves open so as to send the high pressure air in the hollow of the insulator. The
high pressure air rapidly enters the double arc extinction chamber. As

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the air enters into the arc extinction chamber the pressure on the moving contacts
becomes more than spring pressure and it causes the contacts to be open.
The contacts travel through a short distance against the spring pressure. At the end of
contacts travel the part for outgoing air is closed by the moving contacts and the entire
arc extinction chamber is filled with high pressure air, as the air is not allowed to go out.
However, during the arcing period the air goes out through the openings and takes away
the ionized air While closing, the valve is turned so as to close connection between the
hollow of the insulator and the reservoir.
The valve lets the air from the hollow insulator to the atmosphere. As a result the
pressure of air in the arc extinction chamber is dropped down to the atmospheric
pressure and the moving contacts close over the fixed contacts by virtue of the spring
pressure, the opening is fast because the air takes a negligible time to travel from the
reservoir to the moving contact. The arc is extinguished within a cycle. Therefore, air
blast circuit breaker is very fast in breaking the current. Closing is also fast because
the pressure in the arc extinction chamber drops immediately as the value operates and
the contacts close by virtue of the spring pressure.
Advantages:
The growth of dielectric strength is so rapid that final contact gap needed for
arc extinction is very small, this reduces the size of device.
The risk of fire is eliminated.
Due to lesser arc energy, air blast circuit breakers are very suitable for
conditions where frequent operation is required.
The arcing products are completely removed by the blast whereas the oil
deteriorates with successive operations; the expense of regular oil is replacement is
avoided.
The energy supplied for arc extinction is obtained from high pressure air and is
independent of the current to be interrupted.
The arcing time is very small due to the rapid buildup of dielectric strength
between contacts. Therefore, the arc energy is only a fraction that in oil circuit breakers,
thus resulting in less burning of contacts.

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Disadvantages:
Considerable maintenance is required for the compressor plant which supplies
the air blast.
Air blast circuit breakers are very sensitive to the variations in the rate of
restriking voltage.
Air blast circuit breakers are finding wide applications in high voltage
installations. Majority of circuit breakers for voltages beyond 110 kV are of this type.

Rate of rise of recovery voltage

It is the rate of increase of restriking voltage and is abbreviated by R.R.R.V. its
unit is kV/m sec.Consider the fig2 below showing the opening of circuit breaker under
fault conditions. Before current interruption, the capacitance C is short circuited by
the fault and the short circuit current through the breaker is limited by inductance L of
the system
The short circuit current will lag the voltage by 90° where i represents the short circuit
current and ea represents the arc voltage. Under short circuit condition the entire
generator voltage appears across inductance L. when the contacts are opened and the
arc finally extinguishes at some current zero, the generator voltage e is suddenly
applied to the inductance and capacitance in series. This L-C combination forms an
oscillatory circuit produces a transient of frequency;fn= 1/ [ 2π(LC)1/2] , which
appears across the capacitor and hence across the contacts of the circuit breaker. This
transient voltage is known as restriking voltage and may reach an instantaneous peak
value twice the peak phase neutral voltage i.e. 2 Em.
It is R.R.R.V, which decides whether the arc will re-strike. If R.R.R.V is greater than
the rate of rise of dielectric strength between the contacts, the arc will re-strike. The
arc will fail to re-strike if R.R.R.V is less than the rate of increase of dielectric
strength between the contacts of the breaker. The value of R.R.R.V depends on:

Recovery voltage
Natural frequency of oscillations

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 Resistance switching
To reduce the restriking voltage, RRRV and severity of the
transient oscillations, a resistance is connected across the contacts of
the circuit breaker.
This is known as resistance switching. The resistance is in parallel with the arc. A
part of the arc current flows through this resistance resulting in a decrease in the
arc current and increase in the deionization of the arc path and resistance of the arc.
This process continues and the current through the shunt resistance increases and arc
current decreases. Due to the decrease in the arc current, restriking voltage and
RRRV are reduced. The resistance may be automatically switched in with the help
of a sphere
gap as shown in Fig. The resistance switching is of great help in switching out
capacitive current or low inductive current.

The analysis of resistance switching can be made to find out the critical value of the
shunt resistance to obtain complete damping of transient oscillations. Figure
5.8 shows the equivalent electrical circuit for such an analysis.

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