• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.61-67
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• 2012

In the three-phase power system using the three-phase motor, when any one-phase is open-phase, the unbalanced current flows and the single-phase power supplied by power supply produces overcurrent to motor coil. As a result, the enormous damage and electrical fire can be given to the power system. Recently, the thermal over-current relay (THR) or electronic motor protection relay (EMPR) is mostly used as the open-phase detection device of the three-phase motor. When the over-current or overheat of electric line is generated, it detects and operates circuit breaker, but there is the defect that the sensing speed is slow, the operation can be sometimes failed, and the precision is decreased. In order to improve these problems, this paper is proposed a new control circuit topology for openphase protection using semiconductor devices. Therefore, the proposed open-phase protection device (OPPD) enhances the sensing speed and precision, and has the advantage of simple fitting in the three-phase motor control panel in the field, as it manufactures into small size and light weight. As a result, the proposed OPPD protects the three-phase motor, minimizes the electrical fire from openphase, and contributes for the stable driving of the power system. The performance and confidence of the proposed OPPD is confirmed by a great variety of the experiments of operation characteristic.