CIRCUIT BREAKER

Air Blast Circuit Breaker

Air blast circuit breaker used compressed air or gas as the arc interrupting medium. In the air blast, circuit breaker
compressed air is stored in a tank and released through a nozzle to produce a high-velocity jet; this is used to extinguish
the arc. Air blast circuit breakers are used for indoor services in the medium high voltage field and medium rupturing
capacity. Generally up to voltages of 15 KV and rupturing capacities of 2500 MVA. The air blast circuit breaker is now
employed in high voltage circuits in the outdoors switch yard for 220 KV lines.

Though gasses such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, freon or hydrogen are used as the arc interrupting medium, compressed
air is the accepted circuit breaking medium for gas blast circuit breakers. The reasons are given below.

The circuit breaking capacities of nitrogen are similar to compressed air and hence no advantage of using it. Carbon
dioxide has the drawback of its being difficult to control owing to freezing at valves and other restricted passages. Feron
has high dielectric strength and good arc extinguishing properties, but it is expensive, and it is disintegrated by the arc into
acid-forming elements. The desirable features to be found in air blast circuit breaker are

High-Speed Operation – It is very necessary on large interconnected networks so that the system stability can be
maintained. This is achieved in circuit breaker because the time interval between the discharge of triggering impulse and
contacts separation are very short.

Suitability for frequent operation – Repeated switching by an air blast circuit is possible simply because of the absence of
oil, which rapidly carbonizes with the frequent operation and because there is an insignificant amount of wear and tear at
the current-carrying contact surfaces. But it must be remembered that if frequent switching is anticipated, then the
maintenance of a sufficient air supply is essential.

Negligible Maintenance – The ability of the air blast circuit breaker to deal with repeated switching also mean that
negligible maintenance is required.

Elimination of Fire Hazard – Because of the absence of oil the risk of fire is eliminated.

Reduced Size – The growth of dielectric strength is so rapid in air blast circuit breakers that final gap required for arc
extinction is very small. This reduces the sizes of the devices.

Principle of Arc Extinction in Circuit Breaker

The air blast needs an additional compressed air system which supplies air to the air receiver. When opening air is
required, compressed air is admitted to the arc extinction chamber. It pushes away the moving contacts. In doing so, the
contacts are pulled apart, and the air blast moves away the ionized gas along with it and assists arc extinction.

Air blast extinguishes the arc within one or more cycles, and the arc chamber is filled with high-pressure air, which
prevents restrikes. The air blast circuit breakers fall under the category of external extinguishing energy type. The energy
supplied for arc quenching is achieved from the high-pressure air, and it is free from the current to be interrupted.

Types of Air Blast Circuit Breaker

All air blast circuit breakers follow the principle of separating their contacts in a flow of arc established by the opening of a
blast valve. The arc which is drawn is usually rapidly positioned centrally through a nozzle where it is kept to a fixed length
and is subjected to the maximum range by the air flow. The air blast circuit breakers according to the type of flow of blast
of compressed around the contacts are of three types namely axial, radial and cross blast.

Axial blast Air Circuit Breaker – In the air blast circuit breaker, the flow of air is longitudinal along the arc. Air blast circuit
breaker may be a single blast or double blast. Breaking employing double blast arrangement are sometimes called radial
blast circuit breakers as the air blast flows radially into the nozzle or space between the contacts.
The essential feature of air blast circuit breaker is shown above. The fixed
and moving contacts are kept in a closed position by spring pressure under normal operating conditions. The air reservoir
tank is connected to the arc chamber through an air valve, which is opened by a triple impulse.

When the fault occurs, the tripling impulse causes opening of the air valve connecting
the reservoir to the arcing chamber. The air entering the arc chamber exerts pressure on the moving contacts which moves
when the air pressure exceeds the spring force.

The contacts are separated, and an arc is

developed between them. The air flowing at a great speed axially along the arc cause removal of heat from the edge of the
arc and the diameter of the arc reduced to a very small value at current zero.

Thus, the arc is interrupted, and the space between the contact is flushed with fresh air flowing through the nozzle. The
flow of fresh air removes the hot gasses between the contact space and rapidly build up the dielectric strength between
them.
Cross Blast Air Circuit Breaker – In such breaker, an arc blast is directed at right angles to the arc. The schematic
representation of the cross principle of cross blast air circuit breaker is given in the figure below. A moving contact arm is
operated in close spaces to draw an arc which is forced by a transverse blast of air into the splitter plates, thereby
lightening it to the point when it cannot restrike after zero current.

Resistance switching is not normally required as the lightening of arc automatically introduces
some resistance to control the restriking voltage transient but if extra resistance is thought desirable. It is possible to
introduce it by connecting it in the section across the arc splitter.

Drawback of Air Blast Circuit Breaker

In the air blast circuit breaker, it is necessary that the compressed air at the correct pressure must be available all the
times, involving in the largest installation of a plant with two or more compressors. The maintenance of this plant and the
problem of air leakages at the pipe fittings are some factors which operate against air blast circuit breaker and it costly for
low voltage as compared to oil or air break circuit breaker.

SULPHUR HEXAFLUORIDE (SF6) CIRCUIT BREAKER

A circuit breaker in which SF6 under pressure gas is used to extinguish the arc is called SF 6 circuit breaker. SF6 (sulphur
hexafluoride) gas has excellent dielectric, arc quenching, chemical and other physical properties which have proved its
superiority over other arc quenching mediums such as oil or air. The SF 6 circuit breaker is mainly divided into three types

 Non-puffer piston circuit breaker

 Single- puffer piston circuit breaker.

 Double-puffer piston circuit breaker.

The circuit breaker which used air and oil as an insulating medium, their arc extinguishing force builds up was relatively
slow after the movement of contact separation. In the case of high voltage circuit breakers quick arc extinction properties
are used which require less time for quick recovery, voltage builds up. SF 6 circuit breakers have good properties in this
regards compared to oil or air circuit breakers. So in high voltage up to 760 kV, SF 6 circuit breakers is used.

PROPERTIES OF SULPHUR HEXAFLUORIDE CIRCUIT BREAKER

Sulphur hexafluoride possesses very good insulating and arc quenching properties. These properties are

 It is colourless, odourless, non-toxic, and non-inflammable gas.

 SF6 gas is extremely stable and inert, and its density is five times that of air.

 It has high thermal conductivity better than that of air and assists in better cooling current carrying parts.
 SF6 gas is strongly electronegative, which means the free electrons are easily removed from discharge by the
formation of negative ions.

 It has a unique property of fast recombination after the source energising spark is removed. It is 100 times more
effective as compared to arc quenching medium.

 Its dielectric strength is 2.5 times than that of air and 30% less than that of the dielectric oil. At high pressure the
dielectric strength of the gas increases.

 Moisture is very harmful to SF6 circuit breaker. Due to a combination of humidity and SF6 gas, hydrogen fluoride
is formed (when the arc is interrupted) which can attack the parts of the circuit breakers.

CONSTRUCTION OF SF6 CIRCUIT BREAKERS

SF6 circuit breakers mainly consist of two parts, namely (a) the interrupter unit and (b) the gas system.

Interrupter Unit – This unit consists of moving and fixed contacts comprising a set of current-carrying parts and an
arcing probe. It is connected to the SF 6 gas reservoir. This unit consists slide vents in the moving contacts which permit
the high-pressure gas into the main tank.

Gas System – The closed circuit gas

system is employed in SF6 circuit breakers. The SF6 gas is costly, so it is reclaimed after each operation. This unit consists
low and high-pressure chambers with a low-pressure alarm along with warning switches. When the pressure of the gas is
very low due to which the dielectric strength of gases decrease and an arc quenching ability of the breakers is
endangered, then this system gives the warning alarm.

WORKING PRINCIPLE OF SF6 CIRCUIT BREAKER

In the normal operating conditions, the contacts of the breaker are closed. When the fault occurs in the system, the
contacts are pulled apart, and an arc is struck between them. The displacement of the moving contacts is synchronised
with the valve which enters the high-pressure SF 6 gas in the arc interrupting chamber at a pressure of about 16kg/cm^2.

The SF6 gas absorbs the free electrons in the arc path and forms ions which do not act as a charge carrier. These ions
increase the dielectric strength of the gas and hence the arc is extinguished. This process reduces the pressure of the SF 6
gas up to 3kg/cm^2 thus; it is stored in the low-pressure reservoir. This low-pressure gas is pulled back to the high-
pressure reservoir for re-use.
Now a day puffer piston pressure is used for generating arc quenching pressure during an opening operation by mean of a
piston attached to the moving contacts.

ADVANTAGE OF SF6 CIRCUIT BREAKER

SF6 circuit breakers have the following advantages over conventional breaker

1. SF6 gas has excellent insulating, arc extinguishing and many other properties which are the greatest advantages of
SF6 circuit breakers.
2. The gas is non-inflammable and chemically stable. Their decomposition products are non-explosive and hence
there is no risk of fire or explosion.

3. Electric clearance is very much reduced because of the high dielectric strength of SF 6.

4. Its performance is not affected due to variations in atmospheric condition.

5. It gives noiseless operation, and there is no over voltage problem because the arc is extinguished at natural
current zero.

6. There is no reduction in dielectric strength because no carbon particles are formed during arcing.

7. It requires less maintenance and no costly compressed air system is required.

8. SF6 performs various duties like clearing short-line faults, switching, opening unloaded transmission lines, and
transformer reactor, etc. without any problem.

DISADVANTAGES OF SF6 CIRCUIT BREAKERS

1. SF6 gas is suffocating to some extent. In the case of leakage in the breaker tank, the SF 6 gas being heavier than air
and hence SF6 are settled in the surroundings and lead to the suffocation of the operating personnel.
2. The entrance of moisture in the SF6 breaker tank is very harmful to the breaker, and it causes several failures.

3. The internal parts need cleaning during periodic maintenance under clean and dry environment.

4. The special facility requires for transportation and maintenance of quality of gas.

BULK OIL AND MINIMUM OIL CIRCUIT BREAKER

Bulk Oil Circuit Breaker: A breaker which uses a large quantity of oil for arc extinction is called a bulk oil circuit
breaker. Such type of circuit breaker is also known as dead tank-type circuit breaker because their tank is held at ground
potential. The quantity of oil requires in bulk oil circuit breaker depends on the system voltage. If the output rating of the
voltage is 110 KV, then it requires 8 to 10 thousand kg of oil, and if their output rating is 220 KV, then breakers need 50
thousand Kg of oil.

In bulk oil circuit breaker, oil performs mainly two functions. Firstly, it acts as an arc extinguishing medium and
secondly, it insulates the live parts of the breaker from earth. The quantity of oil requires for arc extinction is only about
one-tenth of the total and the rest being used for the insulation.
These large quantities of oil are subject to the
carbonisation, sludging, etc., which occurs due to arc interruption and other causes reducing the insulating properties and
requires regular maintenance.

Bulk oil circuit breaker needs a large tank which increases expenses and also increases the weight of the circuit breaker.
Because of the following disadvantage the low oil circuit breaker is developed which use minimum oil for arc extinction.

Minimum Oil Circuit Breaker

In this type of circuit breaker minimum oil is used as an arc quenching medium and it is mounted on a porcelain insulator
to insulate it from the earth. The arc chamber of such type of circuit breaker is enclosed in a bakelised paper. The lower
portion of this breaker is supported by the porcelain and the upper porcelain enclosed the contacts.

This circuit breaker is of the single breaker type in which a moving contact tube moves in a vertical line to make or break
contact with the upper fixed contacts mounted within the arc control devices.

A lower ring of fixed contacts is in permanent contact with the moving arm to provide the other terminal of the phase
unit. Within the moving contact, the tube is a fixed piston. When the moving contact moves downwards, it forces the
insulating oil to enter into the arc control devices . Thus, the arc gets extinguished.
Minimum oil circuit breaker requires less space as compared to
bulk oil circuit breaker which is an important feature in large installations. But it is less suitable in places where the
frequent operation is required because the degree of carbonisation produced in the small volume of oil is far more
dangerous than in the conventional bulk oil circuit breakers and this also decreases the dielectric strength of the material.

The low oil circuit breakers have the advantages of a requirement of the lesser quantity of oil, smaller space requirement,
smaller tank size, smaller weight, low cost, reduced risk of fire and reduced maintenance problems. Minimum oil circuit
breaker suffers from the following drawbacks when compared with the bulk oil circuit breakers

 Increased degree of carbonisation due to a smaller quantity of oil.

 The dielectric strength of oil decreases due to a high degree of carbonisation.

 Difficulty in removal of gases from the contact space-time

A breaker which used vacuum as an arc extinction medium is called a vacuum circuit breaker. In this circuit breaker, the
fixed and moving contact is enclosed in a permanently sealed vacuum interrupter. The arc is extinct as the contacts are
separated in high vacuum. It is mainly used for medium voltage ranging from 11 KV to 33 KV.

Vacuum circuit breaker has a high insulating medium for arc extinction as compared to the other circuit breaker.
The pressure inside the vacuum interrupter is approximately 10 -4 torrent and at this pressure, very few molecules are
present in the interrupter. The vacuum circuit breaker has mainly two phenomenal properties.

1. High insulating strength: In comparison to various other insulating media used in circuit breaker vacuum is a
superior dielectric medium. It is better than all other media except air and SF 6, which are employed at high pressure.
2. When an arc is opened by moving apart the contacts in a vacuum, an interruption occurs at the first current zero.
With the arc interruption, their dielectric strength increases up to a rate of thousands time as compared to other breakers.

The above two properties make the breakers more efficient, less bulky and cheaper in cost. Their service life is also much
greater than any other circuit breaker, and almost no maintenance are required.

CONSTRUCTION OF VACUUM CIRCUIT BREAKER

It is very simple in construction as compared to any other circuit breaker. Their construction is mainly divided into three
parts, i.e., fixed contacts, moving contact and arc shield which is placed inside the arc interrupting chamber.
The outer envelope of vacuum circuit breaker is made
up of glass because the glass envelope help in the examination of the breaker from outside after the operation. If the glass
becomes milky from its original finish of silvery mirror, then it indicates that the breaker is losing vacuum.

The fixed and moving contacts of the breaker are placed inside the arc shield. The pressure in a vacuum interrupter at the
time of sealing off is kept at about 10-6 torr. The moving contacts of the circuit breaker are move through a distance of 5
to 10 mm depending upon the operating voltage.

The metallic bellows made of stainless steel is used to move the moving contacts. The design of the metallic bellows is
very important because the life of the vacuum circuit breaker depends on the ability of the component to perform
repeated operations satisfactorily.

WORKING VACUUM CIRCUIT BREAKER

When the fault occurs in the system, the contacts of the breaker are moved apart and hence the arc is developed between
them. When the current carrying contacts are pulled apart, the temperature of their connecting parts is very high due to
which ionization occurs. Due to the ionization, the contact space is filled with vapour of positive ions which is
discharged from the contact material.

The density of vapour depends on the current in the arcing. Due to the decreasing mode of current wave their rate of
release of vapour fall and after the current zero, the medium regains its dielectric strength provided vapour density
around the contacts reduced. Hence, the arc does not restrike again because the metal vapour is quickly removed from the
contact zone.

CURRENT CHOPPING IN VACUUM CIRCUIT BREAKER

Current chopping in vacuum circuit breaker depends on the vapour pressure and the electron emission properties of the
contact material. The chopping level is also influenced by the thermal conductivity–lower the thermal conductivity, lower
is the chopping level.

It is possible to reduce the current level at which chopping occurs by selecting a contact material which gives out
sufficient metal vapour to allow the current to come to a very low value or zero value, but this is rarely done as it affects
the dielectric strength adversely.

VACUUM ARC RECOVERY OF VACUUM CIRCUIT BREAKER

High vacuum possesses extremely high dielectric strength. At zero current the arc is extinguished very quickly, and the
dielectric strength is established very quickly. This return of dielectric strength is because of the vaporized metal which is
localized between the contacts diffuses rapidly due to the absence of gas molecules. After arc interruption, the recovery
strength during the first few microseconds is 1 kV/µs second for an arc current of 100A.
Because of the above-mentioned attribute of vacuum circuit breaker, it is capable of handling the severe recovery
transients associated with short-line faults without any difficulty.

PROPERTY OF CONTACT MATERIAL

The contact material of the vacuum circuit breaker should have the following property.

 The material should have high electrical conductivity so as to pass normal load currents without
overheating.
 The contact material should have low resistance and high density.

 The material should possess high thermal conductivity so as to dissipate rapidly the large heat generated during
arcing.

 The material should have a high arc withstand ability and low current chopping level.

ADVANTAGES OF VACUUM CIRCUIT BREAKER

 Vacuum circuit breaker does not require any additional filling of oil or gas. They do not need periodic refilling.
 Rapid recovery of high dielectric strength on current interruptions that only a half cycle or less arcing occurs after
proper contact separation.

 Breaker unit is compact and self-contained. It can be installed in any required orientation.

 Because of the above reasons together with the economic advantage offered, vacuum circuit breaker has high
acceptance.

DISADVANTAGE OF VACCUM CIRCUIT BREAKER

 Requirements of high technology for production of vacuum interrupters.
 It needs additional surge suppressors for the interruption of low magnetizing currents in a certain range.

 Loss of vacuum due to transit damage or failure makes the entire interrupter useless, and it cannot be repaired on
site.

APPLICATIONS OF VACUUM CIRCUIT BREAKER

 Because of the short gap and excellent recovery of vacuum circuit breaker, they are very useful as very high
speed making switches in many industrial applications.
 When the voltage is high and current to be interrupted is low these breakers have definite superiority over the
other breakers.

 For low fault interrupting capacities the cost is low in comparison to other interrupting devices.

 Because of the least requirements of maintenance, these breakers are very suitable for the system which requires
voltage from 11 to 33 kV

HVDC CIRCUIT BREAKER

The HVDC circuit breaker is a switching device that interrupts the flow of abnormal direct current in the circuit. When
the fault occurs in the system, the mechanical contacts of the circuit breaker are pulled apart and thus their circuit is open.
In HVDC circuit breaker, circuit breaking is difficult because the current flow through it is unidirectional and there is no
zero current.

The main application of the HVDC circuit breaker is to interrupt the high voltage direct current flows in the
network. AC circuit breaker easily interrupts the arc at natural current zero in the AC wave. At zero current, the energy to
be interrupted is also zero. The contact gap has to recover the dielectric strength to withstand natural transient recovery
voltage.
With DC circuit breakers, the problem is more complex as the DC waveform does not have natural current zeros. Forced
arc interruption would produce high transient recovery voltage and restrike without arc interruption and ultimate
destruction of the breaker contacts. In designing of HVDC circuit breakers, there are three main problems to be
overcome. These problems are

 Creation of artificial current zero.

 Prevention of restrikes arc.

 Dissipation of stored energy.

The artificial current zero principles are used in HVDC circuit breakers for arc extinction. By introducing a parallel L-C
circuit, the arc current is subjected to oscillations. These oscillations are severe and have several artificial current zeros.
The breaker extinguishes the arc at one of the artificial current zeros. The crest current of the oscillation must be greater
than the direct current to be interrupted.

A series resonant circuit with L and C is connected across the main contact M of a conventional DC circuit breaker
through an auxiliary contact S1, and resistor R is connected through contact S 2. Under normal operating conditions, main
contact M and charging contact S2 remain closed, and the capacitor C is charged to line voltage through the high
resistance R. Contact S1 is open and has line voltage across it.

For interrupting main circuit current Id, the operating mechanism open
contact S2 and closes contact S1. This indicates discharge of capacitor C through inductance L, main contact M and
auxiliary contact S1 setting up an oscillatory current shown in the figure below. Thus, artificial current zeros are created,
and the circuit breaker main contact M is opened at a current zero. After that, contact S 1 is opened, and contact S2 is
closed.
Another way of interrupting the main direct current is by its diversion to
the capacitor so that the magnitude of current to be interrupted by the circuit breakers becomes smaller. This is shown in
the figure below. The capacitor C is initially uncharged.

When the main contact M opens, the main circuit current is diverted to the capacitor C. Thus, the current to be
interrupted by the main contacts M becomes smaller. The nonlinear resistor R absorbs energy without greatly adding to
the voltage across the main contact M.

The rate of rising of the recovery voltage across M is expressed as

The problem of prevention of restrikes is very intense in oscillating current DC circuit breakers where
the time in which the current is chopped is very small. Thus, the steep surge of the restriking voltage across breaker
terminals is produced, and the circuit breaker must be capable of withstanding this voltage.