Investigation of Melting Current in Glass Tube Fuses

Abstract

This paper presents a study of melting current in the commercial glass tube fuses to determine the duration of melt, maximum melting current and maximum power consumption of the fuse in a blowing circuit. A microcontroller is used as a device to measure and collect the values of current, voltage, and power consumption. In the experiments, the glass tube fuses rated of 0.5 A, 1 A, 2 A, 3 A, 5 A, 10 A, 15 A, and 20 A were used. The experimental results show that the melting time were approximately 0.05 s, 0.07 s, 0.11 s, 0.13 s, 0.18 s, 0.20 s, 0.28 s, and 0.40 s; the maximum of melting current were approximately 0.66 A, 1.17 A, 3.81 A, 13.77 A, 20.80 A, 25.05 A, 26.66 A, and 29.96 A; the maximum of blowing voltage were approximately 12.25 V, 12.25 V, 12.30 V, 12.15 V, 12.10 V, 12.29 V, 12.10 V and 12.20 V; and the maximum of blowing power consumption were approximately 7.53 W, 14.22 W, 45.57 W, 158.49 W, 224.38 W, 242.21 W, 230.63 W and 283.68 W respectively.