• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.36 no.2
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• pp.315-320
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• 2012

Generally circuit devices of low voltage are as follows, ICCB, PCB and MCCB. Among them, MCCB is typically used because it has superior characteristics which fuses do not possess, such as safety, controllability and ability to collaborate with other devices. The MCCB plays vital role, it has to trip instantaneously when the fault is occurred as well as it must have high insulation capacity. Therefore in order to enhance the breaking capacity, the study of contact construction, contact tip and link are necessary. This paper shows dynamic modeling of mechanism part of MCCB using an exclusive analysis program, and embodies the research of improvement of mechanism performance.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2002.11d
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• pp.36-38
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• 2002

Low voltage circuit breakers which interrupt rapidly and raise the reliability of power supply are widly used in power distribution systems. In the paper, it was investigated how much Interrupting capability was improved by correcting the shape of the contact system in molded case circuit breaker(below MCCB), Prior to the interrupting testing, it was necessary for the optimum design to analyze magnetic forces on the contact system, generated by current and flux density. This paper presents both our compuational analysis and test results contact system in MCCB.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2001.04a
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• pp.476-479
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• 2001

Interconnection of new energy sources, such as photovoltaic generation, wind power generation, etc., into the electric power distribution system may result in the increasing short-circuit capacity when a short circuit fault occurs. The short-circuit capacity becomes over the interrupting ratings of circuit breakers, and then they fails to operate in the proper way they prevent fault currents from flowing into the distribution facilities and thus causing them serious damages. This study deals with impacts on the respective short-circuit capacity of both low voltage and extra high voltage distribution systems at which new energy sources are installed. In order to obtain more accurate and all-case values very close to reality in the complicated distribution system, computer simulation tools should be required. In this paper, however, its focus is placed on examining the varying trend of short-circuit capacity, which may happen owing to new energy source interconnection, as a previewing step for exhaustive simulation studies.

• Journal of Power Electronics
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.272-281
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• 2017

The DC circuit breaker is essential for supplying stable DC power with the advent of DC transmission/distribution and sensitive loads. Compared with mechanical circuit breakers, which must interrupt a very large fault current due to their slow breaking capability, a solid-state circuit breaker (SSCB) can quickly break a fault current almost within 1 [ms]. Thus, it can reduce the damage of an accident a lot more than mechanical circuit breakers. However, previous DC SSCBs cannot perform the operating duty, and are not economical because many SCR are required. Therefore, this paper proposes a new DC SSCB suitable for DC grids. It has a low semiconductor conduction loss, quick reclosing and rebreaking capabilities. As a result, it can perform the operating duties of reclosing and rebreaking. The proposed DC SSCB is designed and implemented so that it is suitable for home dc distribution at a rated power of 5 [kW] and a voltage of 380 [V]. The operating characteristics are confirmed by simulation and experimental results. In addition, this paper suggests design guidelines so that it can be applied to other DC grids. It is anticipated that the proposed DC SSCB may be utilized to design and realize many DC grid systems.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.67 no.11
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• pp.1512-1516
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• 2018

The power system and control system constantly reveals surge voltage such as switching surge of lighting devices and power conversion devices, operating and stops surge of rotating devices, charge & discharge surge, opening & closing surge of circuit breakers and the like. Such a surge voltages can cause damage or malfunction of the element such as CPU, Memory, semiconductor etc. In the industry, in order to protect the system from the surge voltage, a surge protector with low discharge starting voltage, fast response time, and low capacitance is required, and technical development research for that is ongoing. In this paper, in order to solve the problem of the existing GDT discharge tube not discharging from the transient voltage which is higher than the commercial voltage and lower than the discharge voltage of the discharge element, we have developed a discharge element having the control electrode & control circuit. The discharge element having the control electrode and the control circuit can control the discharge voltage according to the needs of the consumer and can satisfy the requirement of the discharge element and the technology of the surge protector downsizing technology and the surge protection technology. It is judged to be effective for development.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.95-100
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• 2008

Conventional Earth Leakage Circuit Breakers (ELCBs) have defects of a breaking failure or a long breaking-time against parallel arc current. In this paper, breaking characteristics of conventional ELCBs were analyzed by simulation of parallel arc in a low-voltage indoor wiring system, and an air-core current sensor and a signal converter being most available for parallel arc detection were developed and applied to a conventional ELCB. The proposed tripped the ELCB regardless of the location of parallel arc. The breaking-time was in ranges of $1.74{\sim}8.3[ms]$ depending on the phase of arc generation, which is about 5 times as fast as conventional ELCBs with the breaking-time of 50[ms].

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.517-520
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• 2003

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of arc current and contact velocity on the erosion of silver contact to be used in low voltage circuit breakers. The arc current range from $2kA_{rms}$ to $20kA_{rms}$. A test system allows the control of the opening velocity profiles with contact velocities up to 10m/s and also enables the synchronization of the contact opening with a point on the arc current waveform. Contact erosion is evaluated by measuring the mass change of the cathode and anode. The results show that increase the opening velocity from 2m/s to 6m/s leads to an decrease in the contact erosion. The material transfer from one electrode to another is shown to depend on the transfer charge and the opening velocity of the contacts.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.489-497
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• 2022

This work investigates the commutation characteristics of the current flowing through an electrical-contact-type switch to the semiconductor switch branch during the breaking operation of hybrid DC switchgear. A simple, reliable, low-cost natural commutation method is proposed, and the current commutation characteristics are analyzed in accordance with the conduction voltage drop of the semiconductor switch branch through experiments. A prototype 400 V/10 A class natural commutation type hybrid DC switchgear is set up. Its performance is verified, and its characteristics are analyzed.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1752-1758
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• 2018

In a low-voltage distribution system, the molded case circuit breaker (MCCB) is a widely used device to protect loads by interrupting over-current; however the hot gas generated from the arc discharge in the interrupting process depletes the dielectric recovery strength between electrodes and leads to re-ignition after current-zero. Even though the circuit breaker is ordinarily tripped and successfully interrupts the over-current, the re-ignition causes the over-current to flow to the load again, which carries over the failure interruption. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the dielectric recovery process and the dielectric recovery voltage of the MCCB. To determine these characteristics, a measuring system comprised of the experimental circuit and source is implemented to apply controllable recovery voltage and over-current. By changing the controllable recovery voltage, in this work, re-ignition is driven repeatedly to obtain the dielectric recovery voltage V-t curve, which is used to analyze the dielectric recovery strength of the MCCB. A measuring system and an evaluation technique for the dielectric recovery strength of the MCCB are described. By using this system and method, the measurement to find out the dielectric recovery characteristics after current-zero for ready-made products is done and it is confirmed that which internal structure of the MCCB affects the dielectric recovery characteristics.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.394-394
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• 2009

Owing to the increasing number of intelligent homes(or called Smart home), the corresponding cost is much higher. Low voltage circuit breakers are widely used in the intelligent homes to interrupt fault current rapidly and to assure the reliability of the power supply. The distribution of magnetic field induced by arc current in the contact system of molded case circuit breaker(hereafter MCCB) depends on the shape, arrangement, and kinds of material of arc runner. This paper is focused on understanding the interrupting capability, more specifically of the arc runner, based on the shape of the contact system in the current MCCB. The magnetic driving force was calculated by using the flux densities induced by the arc current, which are obtained by three-dimensional finite element method. There is a need to assure that the optimum design required to analyze the electromagnetic forces of the contact system generated by current and the flux density be present. This is paper present our computational analysis on contact system in MCCB.