POWER SYSTEM PROTECTION

CHAPTER-2

FUSES
Fuses: It is a short piece of metal, inserted in the circuit which
melts when excessive current flow through it and break the circuit.
• It is inserted in series with the circuit for protection aspects.
Under normal: temperature is below its melting point
Under SC or Over Load: excessive current flow leads to increase in
temperature beyond its melting point.
• In this way fuse will protect the equipments from excessive currents
during abnormal and faulty situations.
• The time required to blow out the fuse element depends on magnitude
of the current and their relation is considered as inverse proportion.
• Therefore, the fuse has inverse time characteristics which permits its
use for over current protection.
S.no Advantages Disadvantages
1 Cheapest form of protection Considerable time is lost due to rewiring
or replacing after protection
2 No maintenance, Break the circuit On heavy short circuit, discrimination
due to heavy short circuit current between fuses in series cannot be
without noise and smoke. Minimum obtained unless there is a sufficient
time of operation can made much difference in the sizes of the fuses
shorter than with CB. concerned.
3 Inverse time characteristics of a The current time characteristics of a fuse
fuses makes it suitable for over cannot always be correlated with that of
current protection. a protective apparatus.

Desirable characteristics of a fuse element: No material

Fuse element is made up of the materials having possess all the
characteristics
a. Low melting point e.g. tin, lead Therefore a
b. High conductivity e.g. silver, copper compromise is
made in the
c. Least deterioration due to oxidations e.g. silver selection of
material for a
d. Low cost e.g. lead, tin, copper. fuse
Fuse element material :
• Lead, tin, copper, zinc & silver for small current up to 10A.

• Tin or alloy of lead and tin ( 37% & 63% respectively ) is used for fuse
element.

• For larger current copper & silver is employed.

• Considerable time-lag is required then zinc fuse is good one

(one which does not melt very quickly with small overload)

• Present days silver is used due to

a. Comparatively free from oxidation
b. Does not deteriorate when used in dry air
c. Coefficient of expansion of silver is small that no critical fatigue
occurs
d. It can able to carry rated current continuously for longer duration
Important terms
• Current rating: it is the current can carry indefinitely without
fusing.

• Minimum Fusing current: it is the minimum current at which

the fuse element will melt.
MFC Depend on various factors: material length, shape, area of
cross section, size and location of the terminal, type of enclosure,
number of strands in the stranded fuse wire.
The minimum fusing current for a stranded fuse wire will be less
than the product of the MFC of one strand and number of strands.

I= k*d3/2

Where k is the constant depending on the material used, d is the

diameter of the wire.
 Tinned copper wire
Material Value of constant SWG Diameter Rated Fusing current
K for d in cm in cm current in A (~)
TIN 405.5 20 0.09 34 70
LEAD 340.5 25 0.05 15 30
IRON 777 30 0.031 8.5 13
ALUMINUM 1870 35 0.021 5.0 8
COPPER 2530 40 0.012 1.5 3

• Fusing Factor: Minimum fusing current/ rated current

• Prospective current: it is current which would have flown in

the circuit if the fuse had been absent. It is replaced by a link
with negligible resistance. Ip is the peak value of the
prospective current.
• Cut-off current: The current at which the fuse melts and
represents as Ic. Ip > Ic, cut-off ha the greater advantages that the
fault current does not reach the prospective peak. The fuse
element melts before the peak of the prospective current is
reached.
• Pre-arcing time: It is the time tpa taken from the instant of the
commencement of the current which cut-off to the instant of cut-
off and arc initiation.
• Arcing time: This is the time ta taken from the instant of cut-off to
instant of arc being extinguished or the current finally becoming
zero.
• Total operating time: Tot = tpa + ta.

• Rupturing capacity: It is the MVA rating of the fuse

corresponding to large prospective current which the fuse is
capable of breaking at the system voltage.
 Types of fuses
Fuses

Totally enclosed or
RRewirable type
cartridge fuse

1) Open type 1) D-type cartridge fuse

2) Semi-enclosed type 2) HRC cartridge fuse

Open fuse type:

Material: Tin, lead or copper
Advantages: simplest and cheapest
form for protection
Disadvantages: due to fire
hazards, unreliable operation caused
by oxidation
Semi-enclosed rewirable fuse:
• Most commonly used in house wiring and small current circuits.
• Material : lead, tinned copper or an alloy of tin-lead
• Advantages: Simplicity and low cost, this fuse is extensively
used as a protective device on low voltage circuits.
• Disadvantages:
fuse exposed to atmosphere, it is affected by ambient
temperature.
time-current characteristics is not uniform and gets deteriorated
with time.
Unreliable operation
Lack of discrimination
• Rewirable fuses suffers from the following disadvantages
1. Unreliable operation
a) Exposed to atmosphere, gets oxidized and deteriorated,
results in reduction wire section with passage of time. This
increases resistance, causing operation of the fuse at low
current.
b) local heating caused by loose connection.

2. Lack of discrimination.

3. Small time lag: Fuse can blow with large transient current
encountered during the starting of motor, switching-on
operation of transformers, capacitors and florescent lamps.
Unless fuses of sufficiently high rating are used.

4. Risk of external flame and fire.

• D-type cartridge fuses:
• Components : Fuse base, screw type of fuse cap, adapter ring,
cartridge-like end contacts.
• Construction:
Cartridge is pushed into fuse cap, fuse link is clamped into the
fuse base by the fuse carrier.
Fuse cap is screwed on the fuse base, after complete screwing
cartridge tip touches conductor between the terminals as a
fuse link.
• Advantages:
1) Reliable operation,
2) Coordination
3) Discrimination to a reasonable extent can be achieved.
• HRC fuse:
• HRC fuses cope with increasing rupturing capacity on the
distribution system.

• It overcome the serious disadvantages suffered by the semi-

enclosed rewirable fuses.

• This type of fuse contains a fuse wire in it, which carries the short
circuit current safely for a given time period.

• During this period, if fault is removed, then it does not blow off
otherwise it will melt and remove the circuit from electrical supply
hence, the circuit remains safe.
• HRC Fuse consists of highly heat resistant material (such as
ceramic) body having metal-end caps, which is welded by
silver current carrying element.

• The fuse body internal space is completely packed with a

filling powder.

• The material, which has filled the insider space, may be plaster
of Paris, quartz, chalk, marble, dust and cooling mediums etc.
That’s why it carries normal current without overheating.

• The heat being produced vaporizes the silver melted element.

Chemical reaction taking place between silver vapor and
filling powder results in high resistance substance, which helps
in quenching the arc in fuse.
Advantages of HRC Fuse:
• It clears high as well as low fault currents.
• Do not deteriorate with age.
• Having high-speed operation.
• Provides reliable discrimination.
• Require no maintenance.
• Cheaper than other circuit interrupting devices with same
rating.
• Permit consistent performance
• Fusing operation is fast without Noise and Smoke

Disadvantages of H.R.C Fuse:

• After each operation, they have to be replaced.
• Heat being produced by the arc may affect the associated
switches.
• Inter-locking is not possible
• Applications of HRC fuses:
• Protection of low voltages distribution system against
overloads & short circuit.
• Protection of cables
• Protection of bus bars
• Protection of motors
• Protection of semi conductor devices
• Back up protection to circuit breakers.
Cartridge Type HRC Fuse
• The fuse component of the HRC is cut in the helix form which evades the effect of
corona at the upper voltages.
• It includes two fused elements namely low resistance and high resistance, and that are
located parallel by each other.
• The low-resistance wires take the usual current which is blown-out as well as
decreases the short-circuit current throughout the fault state.
Liquid Type HRC Fuse
•This type of fuse is packed with carbon tetrachloride also preserved at both the tops of
the caps.
•Once the error occurs when the flowing current surpasses away from the allowable
limit, and the element of the fuse is blown-out.
•The fluid of the fuse performs as an arc extinguishing standard for the HRC fuse types.
•They may be used to protect the transformer as well as the support protection to the
breaker circuit.
• Selection of fuses: It should be able to
• Withstand momentary over currents
• Sustained over load or SC occurs
• Proper Discrimination with other protective devices
• Select depend on load circuit.

• Steady load circuit : current rating equal to or a lighter higher than the
anticipated steady load current are selected.

• Fluctuating load circuits: here selection of fuse for this type should not
blow out for transient overloads.

• Time –current characteristics of the fuse must be above the transient current
characteristics of load with a sufficient margin.