Simulation of short-current limiting performance of 3-phase reactor superconducting fault current limiter

The 3-phase reactor superconducting fault current limiter (SCFCL) consists of three superconducting windings with the same number of turns, which are wound on a single iron core. In a normal condition, it is a good conductor with no impedance because the flux is zero in the iron core. However, under a single-line-to-ground fault, it becomes a reactor with large inductance suppressing the fault current, Furthermore, for two or three-phase short circuits, the reactance of the SCFCL keep zero but it is good for limiting the fault current by the abruptly increasing resistance of the superconducting winding. In this paper, its equivalent impedance under every operating condition has been concluded and the simulations of short-circuit current limiting performance of designed prototype were carried out. The results are in good agreement with the theoretical analysis.