VIDHYAVARDHINI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOFY

PAL

Presentation on Air Circuit Breaker

Students Name
Roll No Name
19 Gajanan Namdev Jagtap
21 Swapnil Vasant Dhapale
Definition of Circuit Breaker :

Electrical Circuit Breaker is a switching device which can be operated manually as

well as automatically for controlling and protection of electrical power system
respectively. As the modern power system deals with huge currents, the special
attention should be given during designing of circuit breaker to safe interruption of
arc produced during the operation of circuit breaker. This was the basic definition of
circuit breaker.
 
Introduction to Circuit Breaker

 The modern power system deals with huge power network and huge numbers of associated
electrical equipment. During short circuit fault or any other types of electrical fault these
equipment as well as the power network suffer a high stress of fault current in them which may
damage the equipment and networks permanently. For saving these equipments and the power
networks the fault current should be cleared from the system as quickly as possible. Again after
the fault is cleared, the system must come to its normal working condition as soon as possible
for supplying reliable quality power to the receiving ends. In addition to that for proper
controlling of power system, different switching operations are required to be performed. So for
timely disconnecting and reconnecting different parts of power system network for protection
and control, there must be some special type of switching devices which can be operated safely
under huge current carrying condition. During interruption of huge current, there would be large
arcing in between switching contacts, so care should be taken to quench these arcs in safe
manner. The circuit breaker is the special device which does all the required switching
operations during current carrying condition. This was the basic introduction to circuit breaker.
Working Principle of Circuit Breaker

The circuit breaker mainly consists of fixed contacts and moving contacts. In normal "on" condition of circuit breaker, these two contacts are
physically connected to each other due to applied mechanical pressure on the moving contacts. There is an arrangement stored potential energy in
the operating mechanism of circuit breaker which is realized if switching signal given to the breaker. The potential energy can be stored in the
circuit breaker by different ways like by deforming metal spring, by compressed air, or by hydrolic pressure. But whatever the source of potential
energy, it must be released during operation. Release of potential energy makes sliding of the moving contact at extremely fast manner.
 

All circuit breaker have operating coils (tripping coils and close coil), whenever these coils are energized by switching pulse, the plunger inside
them displaced. This operating coil plunger is typically attached to the operating mechanism of circuit breaker, as a result the mechanically
stored potential energy in the breaker mechanism is released in forms of kinetic energy, which makes the moving contact to move as these
moving contacts mechanically attached through a gear lever arrangement with the operating mechanism.
 

After a cycle of operation of circuit breaker the total stored energy is released and hence the potential energy again stored in the operating
mechanism of circuit breaker by means of spring charging motor or air compressor or by any other means. Till now we have discussed about
mechanical working principle of circuit breaker. But there are electrical characteristics of a circuit breaker which also should be consider in this
discussion of operation of circuit breaker.
 
Let's have a discussion on electrical principle of circuit breaker

The circuit breaker has to carry large rated or fault power. Due to this large power there is
always dangerously high arcing between moving contacts and fixed contact during
operation of circuit breaker. Again as we discussed earlier the arc in circuit breaker can be
quenching safely if the dielectric strength between the current carrying contacts of circuit
breaker increases rapidly during every current zero crossing of the alternating current.
 
The dielectric strength of the media in between contacts can be increased in numbers of
ways, like by compressing the ionized arcing media since compressing accelerates the
deionization process of the media, by cooling the arcing media since cooling increase the
resistance of arcing path or by replacing the ionized arcing media by fresh gasses. Hence a
numbers of arc quenching processes should be involved in operation of circuit breaker.
Types of Circuit Breaker

According different criteria there are different types of circuit breaker According to their arc quenching
media the circuit breaker can be divided as:
 
1) Oil Circuit Breaker.
 
2) Air Circuit Breaker
 
3) SF6 Circuit Breaker
 
4) Vacuum Circuit Breaker
 
According to their services the circuit breaker can be divided as :

1) Outdoor Circuit Breaker

 
2) Indoor Breaker
According to the operating mechanism of circuit breaker they can be divided as :

1) Spring operated Circuit Breaker

 
2) Pneumatic Circuit Breaker
 
3) Hydrolic Circuit Breaker

According to the voltage level of installation types of circuit breaker are

referred as :
 

1) High Voltage Circuit Breaker

 
2) Medium Voltage Circuit Breaker

3) Low Voltage Circuit Breaker

 
What is arc?

During opening of current carrying contacts in a circuit breaker the medium in between opening contacts
become highly ionized through which the interrupting current gets low resistive path and continues to flow
through this path even the contacts are physically separated. During the flowing of current from one contact
to other the path becomes so heated that it glows. This is called arc.
 
Arc in Circuit Breaker
 

Whenever, on load current contacts of circuit breaker open there is an arc in circuit breaker, established
between the separating contacts. As long as this arc is sustained in between the contacts the current through
the circuit breaker will not be interrupted finally as because arc is itself a conductive path of electricity. For
total interruption of current the circuit breaker it is essential to quench the arc as quick as possible. The main
designing criteria of a circuit breaker is to provide appropriate technology of arc quenching in circuit breaker
to fulfill quick and safe current interruption.
We will briefly discuss

 AIR CIRCUIT BREAKER

 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 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

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 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, 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. 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.
Splitting up the arc into a number of series arcs also increases the arc voltage.
Types of ACB

There are mainly two types of ACB are :

 
1) Plain air circuit breaker
 
2) Air blast Circuit Breaker.
 
 

 
 
Operation of ACB

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 be made 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. High temperature plastics reinforced with glass
fiber and ceramics are preferable materials for making arc chute.The second objective that is lengthening the arc path, is achieved
concurrently with fist 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 technique 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 won mini arc chute. So each of the split
arcs has its won cooling and lengthening effect due to its won mini arc chute and hence individual split arc voltage becomes high.
These collectively, make the over all arc voltage, much higher than the system voltage.
 
  
 
 
 
This was working principle of air circuit breaker now we will discuss in details the
operation of ACB in practice.

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
won mini arc chute. So each of the split arcs has its won cooling and lengthening effect due to its won mini arc chute
and hence individual split arc voltage becomes high. These collectively, make the over all arc voltage, much higher
than the system voltage.
This was working principle of air circuit breaker now we will discuss in details the operation of ACB in practice.
 
As the current gets, a parallel low resistive path through the arcing contact during opening of main contacts, there
will not be any arcing in the main contact. The arcing is only initiated when finally the arcing contacts are separated.
The each of the arc contacts is fitted with an arc runner which helps, the arc discharge to move upward due to both
thermal and electromagnetic effects as shown in the figure. As the arc is driven upward it enters in the arc chute,
consisting of splitters. The arc in chute will become colder, lengthen and split hence arc voltage becomes much larger
than system voltage at the time of operation of air circuit breaker, and therefore the arc is quenched finally during the
current zero.
Although this type of circuit breakers have become obsolete for medium voltage application, but they are still
preferable choice for high current rating in low voltage application.
Air Blast Circuit Breaker
. Air Blast Circuit Breaker has some specific advantages over oil circuit breaker which are
listed as follows,

There is no chance of fire hazard caused by oil.

 
The breaking speed of circuit breaker is much higher during operation of air blast circuit breaker.
 
3) Arc quenching is much faster during operation of air blast circuit breaker.
 
4) The duration of arc is same for all values of small as well as high currents interruptions.
 

6) The stability of the system can be well maintained as it depends on the speed of operation of circuit
breaker.
 
7) Requires much less maintenance compared to oil circuit breaker.
 
There are also some disadvantages of air blast circuit breakers

1) In order to have frequent operations, it is necessary to have sufficiently high capacity air compressor.
 
2) Frequent maintenance of compressor, associated air pipes and automatic control equipments is also required.
 
3) Due to high speed current interruption there is always a chance of high rate of rise of re-striking voltage and current chopping.
 
There also a chance of air pressure leakage from air pipes junctions.

 
As we said earlier that there are mainly two types of ACB, plain air circuit breaker and air blast circuit breaker. But the later
can be sub divided further into three different categories.
 
a) Axial Blast ACB.
 
b) Axial Blast ACB with side moving contact. c) Cross Blast ACB.
 
 Axial Blast Air Circuit Breaker
 
 An Axial Blast ACB the moving contact is in contact with fixed contact with the help of a spring pressure as shown in
the figure. There is a nozzle orifice in the fixed contact which is blocked by tip of the moving contact at normal closed
condition of the breaker. When fault occurs, the high pressure air is introduced into the arcing chamber. The air
pressure will counter the spring pressure and deforms the spring hence the moving contact is withdrawn from the fixed
contact and nozzle hole becomes open. At the same time the high pressure air starts flowing along the arc through the
fixed contact nozzle orifice. This axial flow of air along the arc through the nozzle orifice will make the arc lengthen
and colder hence arc voltage become much higher than system voltage that means system voltage is insufficient to
sustain the arc consequently the arc is quenched.
In this type of axial blast air circuit breaker the moving contact is fitted over a piston supported over a spring. In
order to open the circuit breaker the air is admitted into the arcing chamber when pressure reaches to a predetermined
value, it presses down the moving contact; an arc is drawn between the fixed and moving contacts. The air blast
immediately transfers the arc to the arcing electrode and is consequently quenched by the axial flow of air.
Cross Blast Air Circuit Breaker
 The working principle of Cross Blast Air Circuit Breaker is quite simple. In this system of air blast circuit
breaker the blast pipe is fixed in perpendicular to the movement of moving contact in the arcing chamber and on
the opposite side of the arcing chamber one exhaust chamber is also fitted at the same alignment of blast pipe,
so that the air comes from blast pipe can straightly enter into exhaust chamber through the contact gap of the
breaker. The exhaust chamber is spit with arc splitters. When moving contact is withdrawn from fixed contact,
an arc is established in between the contact, and at the same time high pressure air coming from blast pipe will
pass through the contact gap and will forcefully take the arc into exhaust chamber where the arc is split with the
help of arc splitters and ultimately arc is quenched.
References:

1) Electrical Engineering
Online Electrical Engineering Study Site
 
2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_breaker
Thank You