EEE 462 Switch Gear and Protection

EEE 462
Switch Gear and Protection

Lecture 3
Arc Phenomenon
When a short-circuit occurs, a heavy current flows through the
contacts of the circuit breaker before they are opened by the
protective system. At the instant when the contacts begin to separate
the contact area decreases rapidly and large fault current causes
increased current density and hence rise in temperature. The hea
produced in the medium between contacts (usually the medium is oi
or air) is sufficient to ionize the air or vaporize and ionize the oil.
The ionised air or vapour acts as conductor and an arc is struck
between the contacts. The p.d. between the contacts is quite smal
and is just sufficient to maintain the arc. The arc provides a low
resistance path and consequently the current in the circuit remains
uninterrupted so long as the arc persists.
Arc Phenomenon (cont.)
During the arcing period, the current flowing between the contacts
depends upon the arc resistance. The greater the arc resistance, the
smaller the current that flows between the contacts.
The arc resistance depends upon the following factors:

Degree of ionisation— the arc resistance increases with the
decrease in the number of ionized particles between the contacts.
Length of the arc— the arc resistance increases with the length of
the arc
Cross-section of arc— the arc resistance increases with the
decrease in area of X-section of the arc.
PrincipIes of Arc Extinction
Factors responsible for arc between the contacts
(i) p.d. between the contacts
(ii) ionised particles between contacts
PrincipIes of Arc Extinction
i) When the contacts have a small separation, the p.d. between th
sufficiently small to maintain the arc. However, this method is impracti
n high voltage system where a separation of many meters may be requ
ii) The ionised particles between the contacts tend to maintain the arc
he arc path is deionised, the arc extinction will be facilitated. This may
achieved by cooling the arc or by bodily removing the ionised particles
he space between the contacts.
Methods of Arc Extinction
• There are two methods of extinguishing the arc in CB
1. High resistance method.
2. Low resistance or current zero method
High resistance method:

• In this method, arc resistance is made to increase with time so
current is reduced to a value insufficient to maintain the
Consequently, the current is interrupted or the arc is extinguished.
• The principal disadvantage of this method is that enormous energy

dissipated in the arc. Therefore, it is employed only in d.c. CBs and
capacity a.c. circuit breakers.
with arc spacing (arc extinguishing chamber)
Methods of Arc Extinction (cont.)
Low resistance or Current zero method:
This method is employed for arc
extinction in a.c. circuits only. In this
method, arc resistance is kept low until
current is zero where the arc extinguishes
naturally and is prevented from restriking
inspite of the rising voltage across the
contacts. All modern high power a.c.
circuit breakers employ this method for
arc extinction.
Methods of Arc Extinction (cont.)
Low resistance or Current zero method:
In an a.c. system, current drops to zero after every half-cycle. At every
current zero, the arc extinguishes for a brief moment.
Now the medium between the contacts contains ions and electrons so
that it has small dielectric strength and can be easily broken down by
the rising contact voltage known as restriking voltage. If such a
breakdown does occur, the arc will stick at another halfcycle.
If immediately after current zero, the dielectric strength of the medium
between contacts is built up more rapidly than the voltage across the
contacts, the arc fails to restrike and the current will be interrupted
The rapid increase of dielectric strength of the medium near current
zero can be achieved by :
(a) causing the ionised particles in the space between contacts to
recombine into neutral molecules.
(b) sweeping the ionised particles away and replacing them by un-
ionised particles
• The real problem in a.c. arc interruption is to rapidly deionise

the medium between contacts as soon as the current
becomes zero so that the rising contact voltage or restriking
voltage cannot breakdown the space between contacts.
De-ionisation of the medium
engthening of the gap:
he dielectric strength of the medium is proportional to the length of the gap between con
herefore, by opening the contacts rapidly, higher dielectric strength of the medium c
chieved.
High pressure:
f the pressure in the vicinity of the arc is increased, the density of the particles constitutin
discharge also increases. The increased density of particles causes higher rate of de-ioni
nd consequently the dielectric strength of the medium between contacts is increased.
Cooling:
Natural combination of ionised particles takes place more rapidly if they are allowed to
herefore, dielectric strength of the medium can be increased by cooling the arc.
Blast effect:
f the ionised particles between the contacts are swept away and replaced by unio
particles, the dielectric strength of the medium can be increased considerably. This m
chieved by a gas blast directed along the discharge or by forcing oil into the contact space
Different Voltages in CB
Arc Voltage: peak value and this peak volt
tends to maintain the current
t is the voltage that appears in the form of arc.
across the contacts of the circuit
breaker during the arc-ing period.
As soon as the contacts of the
circuit breaker separate, an arc is
ormed. The voltage that appears
across the contacts during arcing
period is called the arc voltage.
ts value is low except for the
period the fault current is at or
near zero current point. At current
zero, the arc voltage rises rapidly to
Restriking voltage: the dielectric strength builds up
rapidly than the restriking volta
t is the transient voltage that appears arc fails to restrike and the fault
across the contacts at or near current will be inter
ero during arcing period.
At current zero, a high-frequency
ransient voltage appears across the
ontacts and is caused by the rapid
distribution of energy between the
magnetic and electric fields associated
with the plant and transmission lines of
he system. This transient voltage is
known as restriking voltage.
f restriking voltage rises more rapidly
han the dielectric strength, the arc will
persist for another half-cycle. However if
Recovery voltage:
t is the normal frequency (50 Hz)
.m.s. voltage that appears across
he contacts of the circuit breaker
after final arc extinction. It is
approximately equal to the system
voltage.
t is also known as Transient

Recovery Voltage or TRV
Rate of rise of re-striking voltage (R.R.R.V)
It is the rate of increase of re-striking voltage, measured in kV/µ sec.
Before fault current interruption, the capacitance C is short-circuited by the fault
the short-circuit current through the breaker is limited by inductance L of the syst
only.
Consequently, the short-circuit current will lag the voltage by 90º, where I represe
the short-circuit current and e represents the arc voltage. It may be seen that in
condition, the entire generator voltage appears across inductance L.
Rate of rise of re-striking voltage (R.R.R.V)
When the contacts are opened and the arc finally extinguishes at
current zero, the generator voltage e is suddenly applied to the induc
and capacitance in series. This L–C combination forms an oscillatory c
and produces a transient of frequency
which appears across the capacitor C and hence across the contacts o
circuit breaker. This re-striking voltage may reach an instantaneous
value twice the peak phase-neutral voltage i.e. 2 Em. The system l
cause the oscillations to decay fairly rapidly but the initial over
increases the possibility of re-striking the arc.

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EEE 462

Switch Gear and Protection

The arc resistance depends upon the following factors:

High resistance method:

• The principal disadvantage of this method is that enormous energy

• The real problem in a.c. arc interruption is to rapidly deionise

t is also known as Transient

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