Arcing behaviour of a potential high-temperature superconductor (HTS) circuit breaker arc model

Abstract

Circuit breaker is a vital and sophisticated part of protection accessories in power system. An arc model of a circuit breaker can determine the dynamic and static feature for arcing directed by a power circuit. The idea of HTS Circuit Breaker (HTSCB) evolves with the concept of HTS contacts in liquid nitrogen arc medium. Browne's HTS arc model for HTSCB and its characteristics were developed and investigated earlier in order to address the arcing limitations of existing circuit breakers for HTS power applications. The model was mainly developed from the classical arcing equations. In this paper, the same arc model is investigated for the functionality of arc characteristics simulation response. It is found the arc model has closed relationship with time constant, reference voltage and other parameters. The parameter sweep technique for minimizing the arcing time of HTS arc model parameters shows the trend of arcing voltage and current from the change of arc model's parameters. A test bed environment is developed in MATLAB® Simulink by using the final parameter values to perform the interruption scenario of HTSCB. The results deal with different arcing terms like arc current peak, arcing time, fault duration, transient results of HTS arc model and the wave form transition tendency. Finally, the results are compared with the experimental analysis and found in good agreement.