On the arcless commutation of currents higher than 1 kA

Author

Niayesh, Kaveh ; Tepper, Jens ; König, Friedrich

Author_Institution

Corp. Res., Asea Brown Boveri Switzerland Ltd., Baden, Switzerland

fYear

2004

fDate

20-23 Sept. 2004

Firstpage

388

Lastpage

394

Abstract

A new current limiting principle based on the application of liquid metals is proposed. This principle takes advantage of the arcless commutation of currents to a gradually increasing parallel resistance and makes it possible to realize a current-controlled resistor for very high currents, which can be used to limit the fault currents in power networks. The conditions for the arcless current commutation are investigated theoretically and the optimum profile for the parallel resistor is derived. An experimental set-up is constructed to investigate the behaviour of the separating contacts under different current amplitudes, different current steepnesses and different resistance profiles. The experimental results relating to the commutation phase are compared to the theoretical limits.

Keywords

commutation; electric resistance; electrical contacts; fault current limiters; liquid metals; resistors; arcless current commutation; current controlled resistor; current limiting principle; electrical contacts; fault currents; liquid metals; parallel resistance; power networks; Contact resistance; Current density; Current limiters; Fault currents; Fuses; Impedance; Low voltage; Magnetic materials; Resistors; Superconducting materials;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Electrical Contacts, 2004. Proceedings of the 50th IEEE Holm Conference on Electrical Contacts and the 22nd International Conference on Electrical Contacts

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8460-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/HOLM.2004.1353146

Filename

1353146