A fast LVDC vacuum hybrid circuit breaker: Dielectric recovery and design consideration

Abstract

Aiming at the fast protection requirements of electrical ships LVDC distribution system, this paper studies a topology of unidirectional vacuum hybrid circuit breaker. The hybrid circuit breaker is an improved current injection LVDC breaker based on precharged capacitor, which improves the dielectric recovery capability of vacuum interrupter after artificial current zero by using a freewheel diode. A synthetic test platform is built to study the dielectric strength recovery characteristics of a 45 mm diameter CuCr50 butt contact vacuum interrupter (driven by Thomson coil actuator, average opening speed of about 3 m/s)under high current(about 20 kA) and small gap(about 1 mm). The experimental results indicate that the dielectric strength of the contact can recover at a very fast speed within the arc time of 100 µs; when the arc time is increased to 320 µs, the dielectric strength of the contact cannot recover for a long time. Therefore, the design principle of the circuit breaker is obtained: within the arc time of 100 µs, by increasing the arc time can increase the contact distance, so the transient interruption voltage tolerance margin of the circuit breaker can be improved. Based on the results of the test, this paper also proposes a calculation method of forced commutation circuit parameters, which is verified by the simulation. The research results show that the DC circuit breaker can realise the rapid breaking of 20 kA fault current within 2 ms, and has a good application prospect in the LVDC distribution system.