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1 Introduction
A fuse in its simplest form, is a small piece of thin metal wire (or strip) connected in
between two terminals mounted on an insulated base and forms the weakest link in series
with the circuit. The
fuse is the cheapest, simplest and oldest
protective device and is used as current interrupting device
under overload and/or short circuit conditions. It is designed so
that it carries the working current safely without overheating under normal conditions and
melts due to sufficient i²R heating when the current exceeds a certain predetermined
value in abnormal conditions, caused by overloads or short circuits and thus interrupts the
current. A fuse, being a thermal device, possesses inverse time- current characteristic, i.e.
the operating time decreases as the fault current increases. Fuses are used to protect
cables, electrical equipment and semiconductor devices against damage from excessive
currents due to overloads and/or short circuits in low-voltage and medium voltage
circuits. They are relatively economical, they do not require relays or instrument
transformers and they are reliable. They are available in a large range of sizes and can be
designed “one shot” or as reusable devices with replaceable links. Modem HRC (High
Rupturing Capacity) fuses provide a reliable discrimination and accurate characteristics.
Recently, HRC fuses of voltage ratings up to 66 kV have been developed for application
to distribution systems. The initial cost of a fuse is small but its installation, maintenance
(against ‘corrosion and deterioration) and replacement (periodically and after blowing)
can be quite expensive (for example, on remote rural distribution networks).
10.2 Definitions
(i) Fuse
• A fuse is a protective device used for protecting cables and electrical equipment
against overloads and/or short-circuits.
• It breaks the circuit by fusing (melting) the fuse element (or fuse wire) when the
current flowing in the circuit exceeds a certain predetermined value.
• The term fuse in general refers to all parts of the device.
(ii) Fuse element (or fuse wire)
• It is that part of the fuse which melts when the current flowing in the circuit
exceeds a certain pre determined value and thus breaks the circuit.
• Materials commonly used for fuse elements (or fuse wires) are tin, lead, zinc,
silver, copper, aluminum, etc.
• Practical experience has shown that the materials of low melting point such as
tin, lead and zinc are the most suitable materials for the fuse element.
• But these materials of low melting have high specific resistance as can be seen
from Table 10.1.
• For a given current rating, the fuse element made from low melting point metal
of high specific resistance will have greater diameter and hence, greater mass
of the metal than those made from high melting point metal of low specific
resistance.
• Thus, the use of low melting point metals for fuse elements introduces the
problem of handling excessive mass of vaporized metal released on fusion.
• For small values of current, an alloy of lead and tin containing 37 per cent lead
and 63 per cent tin is used.
• Either lead-tin alloy or copper is mostly used as ordinary fuse wire for low range
current circuits.
• For currents above 15 A, lead-tin alloy is not found suitable as the diameter of the
fuse wire will be large and after fusing,
• the vaporized metal released will be excessive.
• It has been found practically that silver is quite a suitable and satisfactory
material for fuse elements, because it is not subjected to oxidation and its oxide is
unstable and there is no deterioration of the material.
• The only drawback is that it is a costlier material. Despite being costlier, the
present trend is to use silver as the material for fuses meant for reliable protection
of costly and precious equipment.
• This is the time taken from the instant of the commencement of the current which
causes cut-off to the instant of cut-off and arc initiation. In Fig. 10.1, oa is the
pre-arcing time (tpa).
• The HRC fuses cope with increasing rupturing capacity on the distribution system
and overcome the serious disadvantages suffered by the semi-enclosed rewirable
fuses.
• In an HRC fuse, the fuse element surrounded by an inert arc quenching medium is
completely enclosed in an outer body of ceramic material having good
mechanical strength.
• The unit in which the fuse element is enclosed is called ‘fuse link’.
• The fuse link is replaced when it blows off.
• In its simplest form (Fig. 10.5), an HRC fuse consists of a cylindrical body of
ceramic material usually steatite, pure silver (or bimetalic) element, pure
quartz powder, brass end-caps and copper contact blades.
• The fuse element is fitted inside the ceramic body and the space within the body
surrounding the element is completely filled with pure powdered quartz.
• The ends of the fuse element are connected to the metal end-caps which are
screwed to the ceramic body by means of special forged screws.
• End contacts (contact blades) are welded to the metal end-caps. The contact
blades are bolted on the stationary contacts on the panel.
• The cylindrical body made of ceramic material is closed by metal end-caps which
carry the copper terminal tags.
• The brass end-caps and the copper terminal-tags are electro-tinned.
• The fuse element made of pure silver is surrounded by silica as the arc quenching
medium.
• In order to increase the breaking capacity of the fuse, two or more widely
separated fuse elements are used in parallel.
• The breaking capacity is increased due to a greater surface area of the fuse
element in contact with the silica filler.
• An indicating device consisting of a fine resistance wire connected in parallel
with the fuse elements and led through a small quantity of mild explosive held in
a pocket in the side of the fuse and covered by a label is also provided.
• It indicates whether the fuse has blown out or not
• When the fuse operates on occurrence of a fault, the fine wire is automatically
fused resulting in the combustion of the explosive material.
• The combustion of the explosive material chars the label, and thus indicates that
the fuse has blown out.
• In an expulsion type fuse, the arc caused by operation of the fuse is extinguished
by expulsion of gases produced by the arc.
• An expulsion fuse contains a hollow tube made of synthetic-resin-bonded paper in
which the fuse element is placed and the ends of the element are connected to
suitable fittings at each end.
• The length of the tube is generally longer than the conventional enclosed fuses.
• On the occurrence of a fault, the arc produced by fusing of the fuse element
causes decomposition of the inner coating of the tube resulting in the formation of
gases
• which assist arc extinction. Such fuses are developed for 11 kV, 250 MVA and
are commonly used for protection of distribution transformers, overhead lines and
cables terminating with overhead lines.
(a) Steady load circuits: In these circuits, the load does not fluctuate much from its
normal value (e.g. circuit of heating devices). If both overload and short-circuit
protection of these circuits is required, fuses having a current- rating equal to or a
little higher than the anticipated steady-load current are selected. However, if the
fuse has to provide protection only against short-circuit, then a fuse of much
greater rating than the normal load-current can be selected.
(b) Fluctuating load circuits: In these circuits there are wide fluctuations of load and
peaks of a comparatively short duration occur during starting or switching on. Motors,
transformers, capacitors and fluorescent lighting are examples of this category of load.
The main criterion for selection of a fuse for fluctuating loads is that the fuse should not
blow under transient overloads. Hence the time-current characteristics of the fuse must be
above the transient current characteristic of the load, with a sufficient margin.
10.7 Discrimination
When two or more protective devices, e.g. two or more fuses, a fuse and a circuit
breaker, etc. are used for the protection of the same circuit, the term discrimination
concerns the correct operation of the correct device on occurrence of a fault. For proper
discrimination, there should be coordination between the protective devices. In order to
obtain proper discrimination be tween two adjacent fuses carrying the same current, the
pre-arcing time of the major fuse (nearer the source) must exceed the total operating time
of the minor fuse (far from the source).