1.

To understand this aspect making current and breaking current, first we should
know what actually the making current and breaking current signifies in context with
Circuit Breaker.

Making Current of a Circuit Breaker is the peak value of maximum current

loopduring subtransient condition including DC component when Breaker closes. In
the figure below,I1represents the Making Current of Circuit Breaker excluding the DC
component.

Basically, the capacity of a Breaker to make current depends upon its ability to
withstand and close successfully against the effect of electromagnetic forces. As we
know that Electromagnetic Force is directly proportional to square of current,
therefore while the Breaker is closing maximum electromagnetic force on its contact
will be seen when the current is at its peak value. This reason, Making Current of a
Circuit Breaker is specified in term of peak value of current.

Again, it may happen so that the Breaker is being closed when the fault is existing, in
that case also the breaker should be designed to withstand the electromagnetic
forces. Let us consider the most severe condition in which Breaker is being closed.

The most severe condition is phase to short circuit fault during which the current
through the phase wire will be maximum for subtransient condition (subtransient
means first one or two cycles of current) and after that current decreases. After 8 to
10 cycles, i.e. Transient state the current decreases further and steady state is
reached. Thus we see that before current reaches steady state, there are two sates
Subtransient and Transient state where the current decays down to achieve steady
state.
In the figure above, it is quite clear that the nature of current is asymmetric. This is
because of presence of DC component of current but at steady state the current
becomes sinusoidal i.e. symmetric.

Breaking Current of Circuit Breaker:

Breaking Current of a Circuit Breaker depends on the instant on the current wave
where the contacts of Breaker start separating. In the figure below, the contact start
separating at AB. Let the symmetric component of current at AB is x amp and the
value of DC component is yamp.

Therefore,

Note that Breaking Current of Circuit Breaker is always given in RMS. Here, there
are two things which should be noted. The Breaking Current can be specified in
Symmetric Breaking Current or Asymmetric Breaking Current. In India, Breaking
Current is specified in terms of Symmetric Breaking Current whereas in USA it is in
Asymmetric Breaking Current.
From the above discussion, it is clear that Making Current is peak value of
current during Subtransient state including the DC offset value where as
Breaking Current is RMS value of current at the instant of Breaker Contact
separation. Therefore, making Current must be higher than the Breaking
Current.

Relationship between Making Current and Breaking Current:

If the symmetrical Breaking Current is known then Making Current can be obtained
as follows.

Let symmetrical breaking current = I

Then, peak value of symmetrical Breaking Current = 1.414xI

Now, we need to include the DC componenet of current to get making Current. As

the DC component of Current during subtransient state is almost equal to the peak
value of current, therefore

Making Current = 1.414xIx1.8

= 2.55xI
What happens to CT during saturation ?

What happens in current transformer core during CT

saturation?
Wednesday, January 28, 2015

The core saturation is a physical phenomenon. It happens when the coupled magnetic flux is so
intense that all magnetic domains on a ferromagnetic material are already aligned and thus does
not respond to any further increase in the flux. The implications on the current transformer
secondary current may be diverse. Having a saturated core does not mean the current on the
current transformer secondary will be high or even constant as the flux increases.

Once saturated, the inductance of the circuit drops dramatically. Taking account other
phenomena like hysteresis, the resultant waveform on the secondary circuit coupled by a
saturated core is highly distorted and full of harmonics.

Depending on the level of saturation and the capability of the measuring device to process the
distorted waveform (harmonics) the measured current on the secondary is much smaller than the
corresponding RMS value present in the primary.

But things can be worse:

A basic principle of electromechanical conversion states that the output on the secondary is
related to the variation of the coupled magnetic flux. It explains why a regular current transformer
and transformers can't operate on DC. Although the DC current is not converted into secondary
current, it does generates magnetic flux and thus contribute to core saturation. Theoretically a
core fully saturated by a DC current has no output (DC current causes no variation of coupled
magnetic flux through time).

Asymmetrical faults (like phase-phase) may generate DC components contributing to current

transformer saturation (Thats where the 20x criteria on current transformer sizing came from).

Although also resulting in non-linear output, the saturation of a current transformer magnetic core
has a different characteristic from other saturation phenomena observed on systems like audio
amplifiers.

The bottom line is that the current waveform on the secondary of a saturated current transformer
may be diverse depending on what components are present on the primary current and also on
the burden wired to the secondary circuit of the current transformer. Current transformer
saturation leads to protection devices mis-operation as the measured current does not
correspond to the current on the system.

2. Without a magnetic field, the magnetic domains in the core material are pointing in
random directions. When a magnetic field is applied it causes the the magnetic domains
to turn so they are pointing in similar directions.. When a magnetic material saturates,
all of the magnetic domains are completely lined up and there is no where for them to go.

Since the domains cannot move, essentially the core no longer acts like a magnetic
material and you are left with an air core. The primary inductance drops precipitously
during the time the voltage is high enough to cause saturation. When this happens, the
only things limiting current is a tiny primary inductance, leakage inductance and
winding resistance. During the part of the current waveform that is in saturation, the
primary current rises quickly. You can see this as a distortion on a waveform.

I had an inductor in a hysteretic controller saturate. When I looked at the current

through it, I could the peaks of the triangle wave would shoot up giving an odd looking
waveform. If this current is high enough, it can create enough heat to melt the winding.
I've seen this happen

3. Saturation describes the condition when a magnetic circuit (e.g. the core of the CT)
reaches its maximum flux density (B). Any further increase in its magnetic field
strength (H) will have no effect on the flux density. Since magnetic field strength is
directly proportional to the current flowing through the primary winding, once
saturation is reached, the CT's secondary current will no longer be proportional to the
primary current.

4. Ferromagnetic materials (like iron) are composed of microscopic regions called magnetic
domains, that act like tiny permanent magnets that can change their direction of magnetization.
Before an external magnetic field is applied to the material, the domains' magnetic fields are
oriented in random directions, effectively cancelling each other out, so the net external magnetic
field is negligibly small. When an external magnetizing field H is applied to the material, it
penetrates the material and aligns the domains, causing their tiny magnetic fields to turn and
align parallel to the external field, adding together to create a large magnetic field B which
extends out from the material. This is called magnetization. The stronger the external magnetic
field H, the more the domains align, yielding a higher magnetic flux density B. Eventually, at a
certain external magnetic field, the domain walls have moved as far as they can, and the
domains are as aligned as the crystal structure allows them to be, so there is negligible change
in the domain structure on increasing the external magnetic field above this. The magnetisation
remains nearly constant, and is said to have saturated. [9] The domain structure at saturation
depends on the temperature.[9]

What is hysteris loss in magnetic material?

Physical Explanation of Hysteresis Loss

The magnetic core of transformer is made of Cold Rolled Grain Oriented Silicon Steel. Steel is
very good ferromagnetic material. This kind of materials are very sensitive to be magnetized.
That means, whenever magnetic flux would pass through, it will behave like magnet.
Ferromagnetic substances have numbers of domains in their structure. Domains are very small
regions in the material structure, where all the dipoles are paralleled to same direction. In other
words, the domains are like small permanent magnets situated randomly in the structure of
substance. These domains are arranged inside the material structure in such a random manner,
that net resultant magnetic field of the said material is zero. Whenever external magnetic field or
mmf is applied to that substance, these randomly directed domains get arranged themselves in
parallel to the axis of applied mmf. After removing this external mmf, maximum numbers of
domains again come to random positions, but some of them still remain in their changed
position. Because of these unchanged domains, the substance becomes slightly magnetized
permanently. This magnetism is called " Spontaneous Magnetism". To neutralize this magnetism,
some opposite mmf is required to be applied. The magneto motive force or mmf applied in the
transformer core is alternating. For every cycle due to this domain reversal, there will be extra
work done. For this reason, there will be a consumption of electrical energy which is known as
Hysteresis loss of transformer.

X/R, %DC,First pole to clear ratio of Circuit Breaker.

1. In case of 3 phase A.C circuit breakers , the process of arc extinction during fault clearing is
not simultaneous for all the 3 phases as currents in the 3 phases are 120 degrees out of phase
with each other. So the voltage across the first pole that clears the fault is higher than the normal
phase voltage. It happens because of the shifting of the neutral point.The voltage we are talking
about here is the power frequency recovery voltage.

Mathematically,
First Pole To Clear Factor = Voltage between healthy and faulty phase
Normal phase voltage
In practice, the ratio comes out to be around 1.2 - 1.5
2. Well! Any electrical system would definitely have network components
such as resistances, inductances & capacitances. The resistive network
components would dissipate energy in the form of heat, whereas the
reactive components would store energy. Remember! Energy stored in an
inductor is 1/2 L I(square) and the energy stored in a capacitor is 1/2 C V
(square). Till the moment of fault, current would have been flowing in
these system components and the resistive components would have
dissipated their I(square) R t Enegry in the form of heat. But, the reactive
components (both inductive and the capacitive reactances) would have
stored energy. And, at the instant of fault, the voltage applied to these
network components becomes zero, post-fault point. This is akin to
switching OFF supply to these reactances. When the supply to a reactance
is switched OFF, the energy stored in the reactor is DC in nature (at the
instant of switch OFF, one terminal would be more positive with respect to
the other terminal). So, these reactances would act as DC accumulators.
As the fault is also a short circuit at the terminals of these reactances,
they would discharge thro the short circuit. As the stored energy in these
reactances is DC in nature, the discharge current would also be DC in
nature. But, as these are finite sources, their current feed into the fault
would last only for a few cycles, the time constant decided by the system
R/X ratio. Hence, they are transient in nature.

3. Impact of DC Components of Short Circuit Current and

Circuit Breaker Interruption
Monday, April 4, 2016

As per IEC 62271.1, the rated short circuit current has a time constant of 45ms (approximately
X/R=14.1 at 50 Hz). If your application requires a higher time constants, you may purchase a
breaker designed to operate on short circuit currents with a time constant of 120ms. Thus if you
assume that the relay takes 10mS to detect the fault and actuate circuit breaker shunt trip, it will
be interrupting more DC current if the time constant is 120mS, while the AC component remains
same.

When a short circuit occurs, there's basically an AC component and a DC component. The time
constant determines how quickly the DC component dies down. So when a breaker operates, it
opens against both the AC component and DC component.

The exact DC component of a short circuit component is calculated using the X/R ratio (or time
constant) of the system, at the point where short-circuit occurs. The exact value will depend on
line parameters like inductance, capacitance and resistance. There is plenty of literature to cover
how to calculate the DC-component of short circuit currents.
Also note, CT's may or may not be designed to pick up DC component of the fault currents. In
general CT's for over current protection are designed not to pick up DC component of the fault
current (to keep size and cost small), whereas differential CT's are always designed to pick up
the DC component of fault current.

The DC component is seen as an offset that where the magnitude is dependent upon the X/R
ratio. This is important as it can result in higher instantaneous trip currents than the steady state
short circuit currents. In the US we use an ANSI multiplier to determine the breaker interrupting
current based on the calculated X/R compared to the test X/R ratio for the circuit breaker (The
test X/R ratio is function of the breaker type and interrupting current.). The equation can be found
in many books and most software has an option for doing the ANSI calculations.

Breakers are only marked with interrupting ratings (they do not show the test X/R ratio). It is up to
the specifying engineer to compare the calculated fault duty with appropriate multiplier with the
published interrupting rating and select the proper class of device to allow for adequate
protection.