Circuit Breakers

1
R. Thanesh
ADEE/TRD/NCJ

05/12/2023
2 Definition
A circuit breaker is a piece of equipment
which can do any one of the following tasks:

● Makes or breaks a circuit either

manually or by remote control under
normal conditions
● Breaks a circuit automatically under
fault conditions
● Makes a circuit either manually or by
remote control under fault conditions
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 Circuit Breaker with Internal
3
Structure

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4 Switching Function
●A circuit breaker is used for
incorporating manual as well as
automatic control.
● The automatic control of the circuit
breaker is incorporated with the
help of relays.
● The automatic control is only done
in case of fault conditions

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5 Advantage over Fuse
●A fuse operates once and then has
to be replaced.
● a circuit breaker can be reset
(either manually or automatically)
to resume normal operation.
There are two types of contacts:
● Primary contact
● Arcing contact
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6 Circuit Breaker Contacts
● The primary contactis always
made of a high conductive material
such as copper (Cu).
● The arcing contact is made of arc

resistance material such as

tungsten or molybdenum, which
has a much lower conductivity than
those used for primary contacts.

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7 Normal Condition
● Under normal operating conditions,
contacts remain closed
● W i l l not get opened automatically until
and unless the system becomes faulty.
Faulty Condition
● W he n a fault occurs on any part of the
system, the trip coils of the circuit
breaker get energized
● Moving contacts are pulled apart by
some mechanism, thus opening the
circuit. 05/12/2023
8 Arc Phenomenon
• When the contacts of a circuit
breaker are separated under
fault conditions, an arc is
struck between them.
• The current is thus able to
continue until the discharge
ceases.

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9 Arc is Useful?
● The arc is useful in a way a s it provides
a low resistance path for the current
after contact separation.
● It prevents current chopping and
associated abnormal switching over-
voltages in the system
● T h e arc provides a gradual, but quick,
transition from the current-carrying to
the current-breaking states of the
contacts. 05/12/2023
10 Categories of Arcs
Arcs in the circuit breakers
are categorized as:
● H i g h - p r e s s u r e arcs:
(with ambient pressures of 1 atm
and above)
● V a c u u m arcs:
(with ambient pressures below
10 - 4 torr)
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11 Arc Extinction

The arc depends upon the

following factors:

● Degree of Ionization
● Length of the Arc
● Cross-section of the Arc

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 Classification of Circuit
12
Breakers

Circuit B rea k ers

1. B a s e d 3. B a s e d 4. B a s e d
2. B a s e d
on on on
on
Voltage External Interrupti
Location
•Low Design n g Media
•Indoor
•Medium •Dead •Air Blast
•Outdoor
•High/Extra Tank •Oil
High •Live •S F 6
•Ultra High Tank
•Vacuum

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13 1. Ba se d on Voltage
On the basis of the voltage levels for
which they are used, the circuit breakers
are classified as:
Category R a n g e of Vo l t a g e
Low voltage Less than 1 kV
Medium voltage 1 kV to 5 2 kV
High/ Extra H i g h 6 6 kV to 7 6 5 kV
voltage
Ultra H i g h Above 7 6 5 kV
voltage
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14 2. Based on Location

Circuit breakers are, based upon

where they are located, classified
as:
Indoor type Outdoor type

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15
3. Based on External Design
From the point of view of their
physical structural design, outdoor
circuit breakers can be identified as
either:
Dead tank type Live tank type

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 4. Based on
16
Interrupting Media
The circuit breakers m a y
be classified into following
categories:
● Oil Circuit Breakers
● Air Circuit Breakers
● Air-blast Circuit Breakers
● Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF 6 )
Circuit Breakers
● Vacuum Circuit Breakers
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17 1. Oil Circuit Breakers

● The circuit breakers in which s o m e insulating

oil (i.e., transformer oil) is used a s an arc
quenching medium. 05/12/2023
18 Arc Extinction in OCBs
● The arc extinction is facilitated
mainly by two processes:
● Firstly, the hydrogen g a s h a s high
heat conductivity & cools the arc,
thus aiding the de-ionization of the
me dium between the contacts.
● Secondly, the g a s sets up turbulence
thus eliminating the arcing products
from the arc path. This results in
extinguishing the arc and a s a result
the circuit current is interrupted.
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19 Advantages
● The oil provides insulation for
the live exposed contacts .
● The produced during
hydrogen excellent cooling
arcing
properties has helps extinguish the
and
arc.
● The oil close to the arc
region provides cooling surface.

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20 Disadvantages
● Oil is inflammable and m a y cause
fire hazards.
● The hydrogen, when combined with
air, m a y form an explosive mixture.
● During arcing, oil becomes polluted
by carbon particles, which reduces
its dielectric strength.
● Hence, it requires periodic
maintenance and replacement.
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21 Types of Oil Circuit Breakers

They can be classified with the

reference to the quantity of oil
used.
● Bulk Oil Circuit Breakers
● Minimum Oil Circuit Breakers

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22
2. Air-Blast Circuit Breakers

● They employ a high pressure

air-blast for ar ch qu ench ing
● The contacts are opened in a
flow of air-blast established by
the opening of the blast valve.

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23 Arc Extiction
● The air-blast cools the arc and s w e e p s
away the arcing products of
the atmosphere.
● Consequently, the arc is extinguished
and the flow of current is interrupted

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 24 Advantages
● The risk of fire is eliminated.
● The arcing products are completely removed by the
blast, s o the expenditure of oil replacement is
avoided.
● The size of these breakers is reduced.
● D u e to the rapid growth of the dielectric strength, the
arcing time is also very small. It causes less burning
of oil.
● The arc energy is also very small fraction of that in oil
circuit breakers.
● The arc extinction facilitated by the high pressure
air, and is independent of the fault current to be
interrupted. 05/12/2023
25 Disadvantages

● These circuit breakers are very

sensitive to the variations in the
rate of rise of restriking voltage.
● The air-blast is supplied by the
compressor plant that needs
considerable maintenance.

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26 3. Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6)
Circuit Breakers
● In these circuit breakers, Sulpher hexafluoride
g a s (SF 6 ) is u s e d a s the arc q u e n c h i n g medium.
● The SF6 is a n electronegative g a s a n d h a s a
s trong tendency to a b s o r b free electrons.
● T h i s lo s s of conducting
electrons in the arc
quickly builds
up enough
insulation
strength to
extinguish 05/12/2023

the arc.
27 Uses of SF6 CBs
● For complete range of medium
voltage and high voltage
application up to 8 00 kV and
above.
● This medium is most suitable
for metal-clad and hybrid HV
sub-stations.

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28 Advantages
● D u e to the low energy the contact erosion is
small.
● The ga s e ou s medium SF 6 posse sse s excellent
dielectric and arc quenching properties.
● D u e to the superior arc quenching property of
the S F 6 gas, such circuit breakers have very
short arcing time. Furthermore, they can
interrupt mu ch larger current.
● These breakers give noiseless operation due to
its closed g a s circuit and no exhaust to
atmosphere unlike the air-blast circuit breaker.
● The S F 6 g a s is not inflammable, so there is no
risk of fire and explosion in S F 6 breakers.
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29 Disadvantages
● These circuit breakers are
expensive due to the high cost of S F 6
gas.
●S i n c e SF6 ga s has to be
reconditioned after every operation
of the breaker, additional equipment
is required for this purpose.
● The SF 6 g a s has been identified a s a
greenhouse gas, so can be harmful
for population in its area of operation.
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30 4. Vacuum Circuit Breakers

● In these circuit breakers, the

vacuum is used a s the arc
quenching medium.
● The degree of vacuum in these
circuit breakers is in the range
from 10 - 7 to 10 - 5 torr.

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31 Vacuum Circuit Breaker

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32 Advantages
● The v ac uum circuit breakers are compact in size
and have longer lives.
● Because of the very low voltage across the metal
vapor arc, energy is very low.
● There is no generation of g a s e s during and after
the circuit breaker operation.
● The outstanding feature of these breakers is that
it can break any heavy fault current perfectly
just before the contacts reach a definite open
position.
● They can successfully withstand lightning surges.

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33 5. Air Circuit Breakers

● Aircircuit breaker is defined as

a circuit breaker, in which the
contacts open and close in air
at atmospheric pressure.

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34 Arc Interruption
● The principles of arc interruption used in an
air circuit breaker are rather different from
those in any other type of circuit breaker.
● T his can be achieved in three ways:
1. Intense cooling of the arc
plasma, so that the voltage
gradient is very high
2. Lengthening the arc path to
increase the arc voltage
3. Splitting up the arc into a
number of series arcs
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35 Circuit Breakers Ratings

There are ratings for

three breakers as:
● Breaking Capacity
● Making Capacity
● Short-time Rating

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36 Breaking Capacity
● r.m.s. current that a circuit
breaker is capable of
breaking at given recovery
voltage and under specified
conditions (i.e. power factor,
rate of rise of restriking
voltage).

B r e a k i n g Capacity= 05/12/2023
37 Making Capacity
● It is the peak value of current
(including d.c. component) during
the first cycle of current wave
after the closure of circuit breaker.
● Mathematically stated, making
capacity is given as:

M a k i n g Capacity = ( 2.55x s ymmetrical

b r e a k i n g capacity)

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38 Short-time Rating
● The period for which the circuit
breaker is able to carry fault
current while remaining closed is
known as short-time rating.
● The short-time rating of a circuit
breaker depends upon its ability to
withstand:
1. The electromagnetic force effects
2. The temperature rise
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