400 V DC power distribution systems for data centers require a fast response DC circuit breaker is required. The semiconductor DC circuit breaker is an important key technology in DC power distribution systems. This paper considers the malfunction of Silicon Carbide- Static Induction Transistor (SiC-SIT) based DC circuit breakers in 400 V DC power distribution systems for data centers. The malfunction mechanism is explained, and a solution is proposed. Investigations are achieved by MATLAB/Simulink and experimental verification.

The paper is devoted to the experimental study of the arc plasma characteristics in SF6, N2 and CO2. To one flexible model of gas circuit breaker, short circuit experiments have been carried out considering the influence of contact gap (4–12 mm), gas pressure (1–5 atm), short circuit current (1–5 kA effective value) as well as gas species particularly. During the experiments, the arc image, arc current and arc voltage are recorded by the high speed camera, shunt and voltage transducer, respectively. It demonstrates that to the above mentioned three kinds of gases, the arc radius and arc voltage increase with the short circuit current and gas pressure normally; however, under the same experimental conditions, N2 arc holds the minimum arc radius and the maximum arc voltage, and the arc voltage of SF6 arc is the lowest.

An arc model has been applied in this paper to study the fundamental interruption environment of a 550 kV SF6 single-break tank circuit breaker. The full differential model takes into account of all important physical mechanisms and is implemented into a commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) package, PHOENICS. The model takes a magneto-hydro-dynamics (MHD) approach and the governing equations are solved using the Finite Volume Method (FVM). Through the simulation, the flow velocity vector and mach number for capacitive current switching and short-circuit current breaking are analyzed, and flow dynamic characteristics are obtained. The simulation can provide helpful reference for the design of 550 kV SF6 single-break tank circuit breaker.

Adjustability is an important function of the magnetic release for modern molded case circuit breakers. Based on virtual prototype technology, an automatic prediction method is proposed to design reasonable reactive spring parameters for this kind of magnetic release. 3-D finite element method is adopted to calculate the static characteristics of the magnetic release. Then the dynamic characteristics of the magnetic release can be simulated taking into account the variation of the spring parameters with multi-dynamics method. The calculation results have been verified by the relevant experiments. It demonstrates that the proposed method is feasible to perform the design task.

The gas-puffer effect has important effects on the interruption capability of a molded case circuit breaker (MCCB). In this paper, on the basis of a simplified model of an arc chamber with a single break, the effect of back-volume of an arc-quenching chamber on arc behavior in an MCCB is investigated. Firstly, using a 2-D optical-fiber arc-motion measurement system, experiments are performed to study the effect of back-volume on the arc-motion and gas pressure in an arc-quenching chamber. We demonstrate that the lower back-volume of the arc-quenching chamber is, the higher the pressure and the better the arc motion will be. Then, corresponding to the above experiments, the gas pressure inside the arc-quenching chamber is calculated using the integral conservation equation. The simulation results are consistent with the experimental results.

This paper simulates the dynamic behavior of the operating mechanism of ACB, and analyzes factors influencing the mechanism's operating time. First, it builds a dynamic model for the mechanism with virtual prototype technology. Experiment validation is carried out to prove the correctness of the model. Based on this model, it puts emphasis on analyzing the influence of electro-dynamic repulsion force on the operating time of the mechanism. Simulation and experimental results show that after adding electric repulsion force to the model, the operating time is shortened about 1.1 ms. Besides the repulsion force, other influencing factors including the stiffness of opening spring, locations of every key axis, mass and centroidal coordinates of every mechanical part are analyzed as well. Finally, it makes an optimum design for the mechanism. After optimization, the velocity of operating mechanism is improved about 6.7%.

Short-time withstand current is one of the crucial nominal parameters in air circuit breaker. A numerical method to evaluate the short-time withstand current is proposed. Cylindrical current carrying bridge is introduced to describe the contact spot between movable and fixed contacts. Taking into account the action of ferromagnetic splitter plates, the variation of the conductor properties with temperature and the variation of contact spot radius with the electro-dynamic repulsion force, a transient finite element calculation model is developed by coupling the electromagnetic field and thermal field. The loaded short circuit current is considered as the short-time withstand current once the highest temperature is near to the melting point of the contact material. It demonstrates that the method is useful to evaluate the performance of the air circuit breaker.

A new type of algorithm for predicting the mechanical faults of a vacuum circuit breaker (VCB) based on an artificial neural network (ANN) is proposed in this paper. There are two types of mechanical faults in a VCB: operation mechanism faults and tripping circuit faults. An angle displacement sensor is used to measure the main axle angle displacement which reflects the displacement of the moving contact, to obtain the state of the operation mechanism in the VCB, while a Hall current sensor is used to measure the trip coil current, which reflects the operation state of the tripping circuit. Then an ANN prediction algorithm based on a sliding time window is proposed in this paper and successfully used to predict mechanical faults in a VCB. The research results in this paper provide a theoretical basis for the realization of online monitoring and fault diagnosis of a VCB.

A two-dimensional compressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) computational model has been developed to study the effect of gassing material on air arc behavior in low voltage circuit breaker. The properties of arc plasma and the electric, magnetic and radiative phenomena have been taken into account in the model. Based on the model, steady state solutions have been performed to study the effect of gassing material on the arc radius and electric field in the arc column. Then, the effect of gassing material on the transient process of arc motion also has been simulated. In addition, using the two-dimensional optical fiber measurement system, experiments have been done to measure the average velocity of arc motion with one model chamber and to verify the simulation model and prediction results. It demonstrates that the action of gassing material may yield the stronger electric field, less arc radius and higher arc motion velocity.

For the optimization design of air circuit breaker (ACB), it is important and necessary to calculate the electro-dynamic repulsion force acting on the movable contact. A method based on 3-D FEM with the equations that describe the relationships among current, magnetic field and repulsion force, which takes the ferromagnet into account, is adopted to calculate the electro-dynamic repulsion force. The method enables one to analyze the factors that affect the electro-dynamic repulsion force, including the number of the movable conductor parallel branches as well as the location of the axis and the shape of the flexible connection. The discussion of the calculation results is also presented in this paper.

To one double-breaker model, experimental investigation on blow open force was carried out. It demonstrates that the ratio between the emerging blow open force and arc power FB/ui decreases with the arcing time, the contact gap has less effect on FB/ui, and the characteristics of the blow open force are similar when the peak value of the short circuit current is beyond 4 kA. Then, according to the experimental data and conclusions, considering the influence of blow open force, the interruption process of molded case circuit breakers (MCCBs) was investigated. It demonstrates the blow open force has significant influence on interruption process and the proposed method is effective to evaluate new design of MCCBs.

This paper is devoted to simulate the arc movement in the quenching chamber of the low-voltage circuit breaker. Based on a group of governing equations, a three-dimensional (3-D) arc model is built and solved by a modified commercial code. According to the simulated results, some phenomena such as a 'bulge' in front of the arc column, a tail in the rear of the arc column, arc shrinkage near the electrodes and arc movement characteristics versus different chamber configuration and external magnetic field are found, and the mechanism of the above phenomena is described in detail. Finally, in order to verify the simulation results, arc movement is investigated by hi-spec motion analyzer experimentally.

Using the Vibration signatures obtained during the operations as the original data, a mechanical condition monitoring method for vacuum circuit breaker is developed in this paper. The method combined the time-frequency analysis and the condition recognition based on artificial neural network. During preprocessing, the vibration signature was decomposed into individual frequency bands using the arithmetic of wavelet packets. The signal energy in the main frequency bands was used to form the condition feature vector, which was input to the artificial neural network for condition recognition. By introducing the parameter of approximation degree, a new recognition arithmetic based on Radial Basis Function was constructed. This approach could not only distinguish these conditions that belong to different known condition modes but also distinguish new condition modes.

The interrupting characteristics of low voltage current limiting circuit breakers have directly relationship with the magnitude and distribution of magnetic field produced by contact system and splitter plates. In order to analyze the influence of configuration of contact system on current limiting characteristics, 3D magnetic field of arc chamber (including contact system, arc, splitter plates) is calculated. Furthermore, the electromagnetic repulsion force of movable contact is also calculated. The results can be used to improve configuration of arc quenching chamber. The cooperation between operating mechanism and electromagnetic repulsion force is also analyzed in this paper.