• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2002.08a
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• pp.365-368
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• 2002

The design of industrial arc plasma systems is still largely based on trial and error although the situation is rapidly improving because of the available computational power at a cost which is still fast coming down. The desire to predict the behavior of arc plasma system, thus reducing the development cost, has been the motivation of arc research. To interrupt fault current, the most enormous duty of a circuit breaker, is achieved by separating two contacts in a interruption medium, $SF_{6}$ gas or air etc., and arc plasma is inevitably established between the contacts. The arc must be controlled and interrupted at an appropriate current zero. In order to analyze arc behavior in $SF_{6}$ gas circuit breakers, a numerical calculation method combined with flow field and electromagnetic field has been developed. The method has been applied to model arc generated in the Aachen nozzle and compared the results with the experimental results. Next, we have simulated the unsteady flow characteristics to be induced by arcing of AC cycle, and conformed that the method can predict arc behavior in account of thermal transport to $SF_{6}$ gas around the arc, such as increase of arc voltage near current zero and dependency of arc radius on arc current to maintain constant arc current density.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2494-2499
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• 2007

Self-blast circuit breakers utilize the energy dissipated by the arc itself to create the required conditions for arc quenching during the current zero. The high-current simulation provides information about the mixing process of the hot PTFE cloud with $SF_6$ gas which is difficult to access for measurement. But it is also hard to simulate flow phenomenon because the flow in interrupter with high current, $SF_6$-PTFE mixture vapor and complex physical behavior including radiation, calculation of electric field. Using a commercial computational fluid dynamics(CFD) package, the conservation equation for the gas and temperature, velocity and electric fields within breaker can be solved. Results show good agreement between the predicted and measured pressure rise in the thermal chamber.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.18-23
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• 1991

Recently SLAMECKA suggested the mathematical dynamic arc model of the SF6 gas circuit breaker [1]. The author applied the above dynamic arc model to the E.H.V. transmission line and investigated the interrupting capability of the SF6 gas circuit breaker. In particular the Runge-Kutta-England numerical method suitable for the use in systems that involve nonlinear dynamic arc and traveling wave was used by converting the current source into the voltage source in the DOMMEL's method [2]. The successful computer resultls were obtained and it was found that the arc time constant and the second derivative of the arc conductance are closely related to the interrupting capability of the SF6 gas circuit breaker.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.76-82
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• 2005

In this paper, a method for analyzing the thermal recovery characteristics of the nozzle of gas circuit breaker was described. In order to obtain thermal recovery characteristics, the transient simulation of SF6 arc plasma within the nozzle was carried out. In particular, the nozzle ablation was taken into account by simultaneously solving the PTFE concentration equation with the governing equations such as continuity, momentum and energy equation. After that, post arc current calculation was performed with the rate of rise of recovery voltage changed. From the calculated post arc current, it was possible to suggest the thermal recovery characteristics of the nozzle of gas circuit breaker.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2006.07c
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• pp.1422-1423
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• 2006

In our study, the PTFE nozzle ablation in the high-voltage self-blast type $SF_6$ gas circuit breaker was investigated. The test circuit breaker has the structure that the pin electrode is moving and the pressure reservoir volume and the dimension is almost same as commercial 145kv 40kA circuit breaker for similar result in real circuit breaker. The variation of current and arcing time was the range of $36kA_{rms}$(symmetry) - $40kA_{rms}$(asymmetry) and 10-16 ms. From the measured data the tendecy of the mass loss of the nozzle to current load and arc energy was estimated. In this process, the distance from the arc to nozzle(PTFE) surface, area which was exposed to arc and stroke contour was considered. These results will be used to enhance the accuracy of the computational fluid dynamics analysis in circuit breaker and estimate the residual life time of a circuit breaker.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.03b
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• pp.695-698
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• 2008

Self-blast circuit breakers utilize the energy dissipated by the arc itself to create the required conditions for arc quenching during the current zero. During the arcing period, high pressure, temperature and radiation of the arc could burn in pure SF6 gas and PTFE nozzle. Ablated nozzle shape and $SF_6$-PTFE mixture vapor affect the performance of an self-blast circuit breaker. After a number of tests, nozzle in circuit breaker is disassembled, a section of ablated nozzle is investigated precisely. Using computational fluid dynamics, the conservation equation for the gas and temperature, velocity and electric fields within breaker is solved. Before applying a section model, developed program is verified with experimental data. Performance of ablated nozzle shape is compared with original model through analysis program.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.59 no.2
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• pp.328-332
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• 2010

The SLF(Short Line Fault) breaking capability test for high voltage class $SF_6$ GCB(Gas Circuit Breaker) was conducted. Simplified LC resonant circuit test facility was used for SLF breaking test. During test, Test current was measured by Rogwski coil and arc voltage was measured by voltage divider. Arc conductance was calculated by using these test results before 200ns at current zero. Critical arc conductance value at rated voltage 145kV class is about 2.3mS regardless of breaking current magnitude and arc conductance value at rated voltage 170kV class is about 2.6mS.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers B
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• v.50 no.7
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• pp.331-337
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• 2001

With the increasing reliability of analysis schemes and the dramatically increased calculating speed, the computer simulation has become and indispensable process to predict the interruption capacity of circuit breakers. Generally, circuit breakers have to possess both the small current and large current interruption abilities and the circuit breaker designers need to evaluate its capacities to save the time and the expense. The analysis of small current and the large current interruption performances have been considered separately because the phenomena occurring in a interrupter are quite different. To analyze the dielectric recovery after large current interruption many physical phenomena such as heat transfer, convection and arc radiation, the nozzle ablation, the ionization of high temperature SF(sub)6 gas, the electric and themagnetic forces and so forth mush be considered. However, in the analysis of small current interruption performance only the cold gas flow analysis needs to be carried out because the capacitive current is to small that the influence from the current can be neglected. In this paper, an empirical equation which is obtained from a series of tests to estimate the dielectric recovery strength has been applied to a real circuit breaker. The results of analysis have been compared with the test results and the reliability has been investigated.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers B
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• v.55 no.10
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• pp.528-533
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• 2006

To analyze the small current interruption performance for the gas circuit breakers, the gas density and electric field intensity should be calculated. In this paper, the FVFLIC method is used for the gas flow analysis and the FEM for the electric field analysis. Then, the dielectric withstanding voltage is evaluated by the empirical formulation or Streamer theory. By comparing the calculated dielectric strength with the test result, it is found that both methods show good prediction capability for the small current interruption performance. Especially, when both methods predict the same interrupting performance, the prediction is in accordance with the experimental result.

• KIEE International Transaction on Electrical Machinery and Energy Conversion Systems
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• v.11B no.4
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• pp.121-128
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• 2001

Numerical schemes for the simulation of the cold gas flow in the SF6 puffer type circuit breaker is presented. The governing equation is axisymmetric compressible Euler Equation and FVM is used to analyze the behavior of flow. The upwind scheme is used to avoid numerical instability and MUSCL is used to obtain high order accuracy. For the efficient calculation, AF-ADI scheme is used. The simulation result shows good agreement with the experimental data.