New Circuit Breaker 245kV 50kA 50Hz and 60Hz with a very low operating energy

by Georges Gaudart*, Pierre Chvrier**, Vicenzo Girlando**, Antonio Lubello** * VA Tech T&D - France, ** VA Tech T&D - Italy

Keywords

Interrupter Self blast technique Dual motion Spring operating mechanism

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In order to improve reliability and compactness of the CBs, a new 245 kV 50 kA 50 and 60 Hz interrupter using a well proved and low energy spring operating mechanism has been developed.

1. Introduction: A new circuit breaker 245 kV 50 kA 50 and 60 Hz

Up to 245 kV level, the use of a standard medium voltage driving mechanism has been decided in the development of new Circuit Breakers. These spring operating mechanisms already reached a very high reliability level. The industrialisation process is well proved and several thousands samples have already been sold all over the world. They are very compact and can performed several tens of thousands mechanical cycles. In order to use this very reliable spring operating mechanism, a new interrupting chamber has been developed. Owing to the use of an optimised dual motion device, this new interrupter is requiring a low level of energy to operate. The subject of this publication is to present the technical key points of the main components of these new developments: the driving mechanism and the interruption chamber.

E S S E N T I E L

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Y N O P S I S

In order to improve reliability and compactness of our protection electrical material, a new interrupting chamber operated with a well proved and low energy spring operating mechanism has been developed. Owing to the optimisation of both mechanical and interruption devices, high performances have been reached (245 kV, 50 kA, 50 and 60 Hz). A large part of the failures which occur on CB on the network are due to mechanical troubles. The higher the voltage rate, the higher the failure rate. As, due to capacitive switching requirement, the operating energy is increasing with the voltage rate, the failure rate is mostly linked to the operating energy level.

2. The main objective of the new development was to improve the global reliability and the compactness of the product
The objective has been reached coupling adapted operating mechanism and interruption chamber. 2.1 The reliability target is reached owing to a drastic reduction of driving energy Looking at CIGRE final report of the second international enquiry on high-voltage circuit-breaker failures and defects in service [1], two conclusions can be underlined :

Therefore, the starting point of the new development was to reduce drastically the needed operating energy. In order to understand better the gap in energy level done with this new CB we can see on figure 1 the evolution of the required opening energy for the 245 kV class.

2.2 The drastic driving energy reduction is obtained owing to the coupling of self blast effect and dual motion device As it is well known, a crucial point of an interrupter development is to couple interrupting chamber and operating mechanism which are adapted together. In order to use the medium voltage mechanism, a dedicated chamber has been developed. 2.2.1 The interruption chamber is based on the so called self blast technique
Figure 1: evolution of the opening energy during the past 20 years (245 kV 50 kA CB, 1 pole)

A key point to reach the targeted level of reliability is the reliability of the spring mechanism itself. This is the main reason why a standard medium voltage driving mechanism has been used (figure 2). The medium voltage operating mechanism used is a very compact spring mechanism. The main dimensions are: width = 390 mm, depth = 180 mm, height = 530 mm. It has a long life experience (more than 20 years) and is able to perform several thousands of cycles. The time needed to reload the closing springs is less than 10 sec which allow to perform all the cycles required by the standards (IEC, ANSI).

Two different volumes are composing the chamber (see figure 3): the puffer volume and the self blast volume. The small currents are broken by puffer effect and the extinction of the highest currents are obtained by self blast effect. The transition between puffer and self blast was well studied and checked in order to avoid critical currents.

Figure 3: Self blast chamber

2.2.2 A dual motion cam device allows to minimise the opening energy In order to reduce the opening energy, without limiting the capacitive performances (1.4 60 Hz), a dual motion device has been developed. When the electrical contacts are both opening in opposite directions, the relative opening speed of the electrical contacts is the sum of the classical mobile side speed and the so called pseudo fixed side speed.
Figure 2: Medium Voltage operating mechanism

The pseudo fixed side is linked to the mobile side through the PTFE nozzle. The inverse motion is obtained through a cam and pin device (see figure 4).

Figure 6: comparison between measured and theoretical pseudo fixed strokes as a function of the mobile stroke

Figure 4: Cam and pin device V = Vmobile + Vpseudo fixed

The original and patented grooved cam allows to distribute the relative speed in a non linear and optimised way. The main scope is to obtain the right speed at the right moment, especially to achieve the interruption of the capacitive currents. The shape of the cam allows to control the pseudo-fixed stroke as a function of the classical mobile stroke. The respective strokes of the classical mobile part and the pseudo-fixed part from the closing position up to the opening position are presented on figure 5.

As it is well known, in order to avoid restrikes during the interruption of capacitive currents, an high contact speed is required from contact separation instant up to 7-8 ms after contact separation. As figure 7 shows, the cam has been designed in order to obtain the highest speed on the pseudo fixed part (which is much more lighter) during this critical period. It is possible to note that the maximum ratio around 1.7 between the pseudo fixed speed and the mobile speed is obtained exactly at the critical moment.

Figure 7: ratio between the pseudo fixed speed and the mobile speed as a function of the mobile stroke

Figure 5: theoretical mobile stroke(M) and pseudo fixed stroke (PF) (according to grooved cam design)

Considering that Vc is the necessary relative instantaneous speed to be reached in this chamber to interrupt successfully the capacitive currents (1.4 - 60 Hz), a very simplified evaluation of the kinetic energy which is required is presented in tables 1. According to the figures presented in table 1, the use of the non linear dual motion allows to reduce drastically the requested kinetic energy of the system. Indeed, in the dual motion configuration, the kinetic energy is 4 times lower than on the classical single motion configuration. As a direct consequence of this drastic reduction of the requested kinetic energy, the opening energy which is requested is at least 3 times lower than the opening energy which is requested for a classical single motion configuration.

The measurements which were performed on the prototypes confirmed the effective non linearity of the cam device. Figure 6 is presenting the comparison between the experimental pseudo fixed stroke and the theoretical pseudo fixed stroke as a function of the mobile stroke. The differences between the theory and the experience are mainly due to the elastic components like the nozzle which are increasing the non linear effect.

Requested instantaneous opening speed (m/s)

can be delivered on site with the mechanism already assembled and tested (figure 9).

Single motion configuration Dual motion configuration (cam)

Vc Mobile: Vc 2.7 Pseudo fixed: 1.7.Vc 2.7

Table 1-1: requested speed Mobile mass (kg)

Single motion configuration Dual motion configuration (cam)

M1 Mobile: M1 Pseudo fixed: M1/4

Figure 9: the simplicity of the link between the pole and the mechanism allow to deliver the AIS on site with mechanism already assembled and tested

Table 1-2: mobile masses Total kinetic energy of the system (J) (1/2 M.V2)

Single motion configuration(SM) Dual motion configuration (cam)

Ec (SM) = (1/2) M1 Vc2 Ec (cam) = (1/2) M1 Vc2. = 0.24 Ec (SM)

1+ 1.7 4 2.7 2
2

3. Computational tools have been used in order to optimise the performances and to reduce the development time
In such a kind of innovative solution, the use of computational tools is necessary to shorten the development time. It allows also to understand phenomena and optimise the design. The optimisation is requested to reach the most ambitious performances. The main fields and associated tools which are normally used during a new development product are: Finite element analysis for mechanical systems Finite element analysis for dielectric analysis Simplified 1D modelling for temperature rise at nominal current Finite volume analysis for electrical arc and hot flows simulations for short circuit performances Coupled dielectric/mechanical analysis capacitive switching performances. for

Table 1-3: maximum kinetic energy of the system

2.3 The developed material is compact The new 245 kV GIS developed, with the dual motion interrupter, is presented in figure 8 and compared to the old one. The global volume is reduced of 1.5 times and the mass is reduced of 25%.

Hereafter are presented two typical examples of the calculations which were performed during the development. 3.1 Finite element analysis for mechanical systems
Figure 8: GIS compactness (on the left CAD view of the previous material, on the right the new one)

The cam device has been completely calculated and designed owing to finite element analysis (commercial tool). For instance, stresses on the PTFE nozzle have been calculated during an opening operation. The most

For the open air circuit breaker application, owing to the compactness of the driving mechanism itself, the poles

critical case is to assume that the circuit breaker is interrupting a very high short circuit current. Therefore, in addition to the classical loads due to the motion it must be taken into account the forces due to the pressure generated by the electrical arc itself. The initial conditions are very severe and conservative (figure 10).

(according to the effort measurements the effective duration of the high stress is around 2 ms). The experiences confirmed the high reliability of the nozzle either during interruption tests or mechanical endurance. Taking into account the mechanical characteristics of the PTFE, the same kind of calculations allow to evaluate the temperature effect (from 40C up to +120 C) on the nozzle deformation. 3.2 Flow analysis during 50 kA L90 60 Hz interruption period From the interruption point of view, one very severe test for a 50 kA rated circuit breaker is the short line fault 90% at 60 Hz [2]. If we compare this test duty with the 50 Hz one, there are at least 2 reasons why it is more severe: 1- Approaching current 0 instant, the current slope is 24 A/s instead of 20 A/s in the case of 50 Hz. 2- The slope of the Transient Recovery Voltage fixed by the Standards is 20% more severe. In order to understand better the physical phenomena around current zero, we use an internally developed finite volume software [3] which allows to simulate the interaction between gas flows and the electrical arc during the interruption period. A key point to analyse the results of such a software is to define criteria around current zero period as: The blowing temperature: temperature of the SF6 gas coming from the self blast volume and going to the arc region (figure 12). An associated criteria is the map of the temperature between the contacts at current zero. The pressure rise: static pressure of the gas in the self blast volume The ohmic resistance between the electrical contacts: ohmic resistance of the gas volume which is situated between the electrical contact

Figure 10: Section of the nozzle - Initial conditions of the calculation (the measured traction was 10800 N)

Figure 11: Von Mises stresses on the nozzle

In that case, the static calculation results show that locally the elastic limit is not exceeded (figure 11). Therefore, the margin is sufficient especially considering that the maximum stress is occurring in a very limited region and during a very short time

Figure 12: Blowing temperature (comparison between 50 Hz and 60 Hz around current 0)

These criteria have to be correlated with experimental measurements. The most accessible experimental data which are taken into account are: The measured pressure in the self blast volume The interruption result (positive or negative)

Once the criteria are defined and checked (owing to comparisons between calculations and measurements), it is possible to study the influence of geometric parameters on the interruption capabilities.

Figure 14: temperature map at current 0 (from blue 1000 K to red 2000K)

During the development, the interruption tests confirmed the calculated improvement due to the gas guide in the self blast chamber.

4. Perspectives
The developed 245 kV 50 kA, 50 and 60 Hz chamber allows to propose 245 kV CBs with a well proved, reliable and very low energy spring operating mechanism.
Figure 13: Studied designs (upper view is the reference, M1 and M2 are the modified designs)

The main perspective for the next developments is to generalise the use of this high performances and economical chamber to a larger product range. References [1] CIGRE: Final report of the second international enquiry on high-voltage circuit-breaker failures and defects in service, CIGRE Brochure N83, June 1994. [2] U. Hadebank, H. Knobloch, Procedure for the Optimization of SF6 Circuit-Breakers ETEP, Vol.n2, September, October 1992. [3] P. Chvrier, M. Barrault, C. Fivet, J. Maftoul and J. Millon-Frmillon, Industrial Applications of High-, Medium- and Low-Voltage Arc Modelling, J. Phys. D: Applied Phys., 30 (1997) 1346-1355.

During the arc period, owing to the high arc energy, some gas mainly coming from nozzle ablation is going from the arc region to the so called self blast volume. This gas, relatively hot (from 500 to 3000K), allows to increase the pressure rise in the volume. In this analysis, the modifications (M1 and M2, figure 13) have been proposed in order to guide in a better way the gas during the self blast period (high current period). The figure 14 shows the improvement due the proposed modifications: First of all, the vortex of the self blast gas is more efficient. Therefore there is a better mixture between hot gases (which are coming from the self blast effect) and cold gases (gas initially present in the self blast volume) At current zero, the blowing gas is colder in the two modified designs and the blowing process much more efficient to interrupt thermally the short line current just after current zero.