Sundargarh egineering college

Sundargarh
Seminar on
“SF6 CIRCUIT BREAKER”
Under the guidance of
Er. Pramod kumar mohaptra

Presented by:-
PRATIMA ORAM
EE-15016,regd-1501319025
electrical engineering
 CONTENTS
 Introduction
 SF6 circuit breaker
 Why SF6??
 Types of SF6 CB
 Overview of an arc
 Working principle
 Principle of arc extinction
 Circuit breaker connected with bus bar
 Physical and chemical properties
 Advantages of SF6 CB
 Disadvantages of SF6 CB
 Limitation
 Conclusion
 references
INTRODUCTION
 In modern times, high voltages are used
 Power system
 Industry
 Research laboratories
For safety and protection we use one of the protection device
is SULPHUR HEXACHLORIDE (SF6) gas circuit breaker.
They were first introduced in the mid-1950’s
The first patent on the use of SF6 as an interrupting medium
were filed in Germany in 1938 by Vitaly Grosse and
independently later in the united states in july 1951 by
Westing house
WHAT IS SF6 CIRCUIT BREAKER?
 A circuit breaker is an equipment which can make or break
a circuit either manually or automatically under normal
condition.
 Break a circuit under abnormal, short circuit, overload
condition or any other fault.
 A circuit breaker in which the current carrying contacts
operate in sulphur hexafluoride gas (SF6) is known as SF6
circuit breaker.
 SF6 CBs made from 72-800KV with interruption current is
20 to 63KA and rated current of 1200 to 12000A
Types of SF6 CB
 Non-puffer piston circuit breaker

 Single-puffer piston circuit breaker

 Double-puffer piston circuit breaker

OVERVIEW OF AN ARC IN CIRCUIT
BREAKERS:-
 During the separation
of contacts , due to
large fault current and
high current density at
the contact region the
surrounding medium
ionises and thus a
conducting medium is
formed. This is called
ARC.
Construction of SF6 CB
 The image shoes the constructional details of the SF6 CB
 It contains an arc interrupt chamber. In the arc interrupt
chamber fixed and moving contact are enclosed and is
filled with SF6 gas
 The chamber is connected to a reservoir. Valve mechanism
passes SF6 gas at very high pressure during separation of
the contacts of the breaker. The gas flows from the
reservoir with a high pressure towards the arc interrupt
chamber.
 The fixed contact is hollow and cylindrical in shape. It is a
current carrying contact fitted with the arc horn. The
moving contact is also a hollow cylinder and contains holes
on its sides for the SF6 gas to pass through them after
flowing across the arc.
Construction of SF6 CB
 WORKING PRICIPLE
 Current interruption in a high-voltage breaker is obtained
by separating two contacts in a medium, as sulphur
hexafluoride(sf6), having excellent dielectric and arc-
quenching properties. After contact separation, current is
carried through an arc and is interrupted when this is
cooled by a gas blast of sufficient intensity.
 The SF6 is an electronegative gas has strong tendency to
absorb free electrons.
 The contacts of the breaker are opened in a high pressure
flow of SF6 gas and an arc is struck between them.
 The gas captures the conducting free electrons in the arc to
form relatively immobile negative ions. This loss of
conducting electrons in the arc quickly builds enough
insulation strength to extinguish the arc.
 A gas blast applied to the arc must be able to cool it
rapidly so that gas temperature between the contacts is
reduced from 20,000 K to less than 2000 K in a few
hundred microseconds, so that it is able to withstand
the transient recovery voltage that is applied across the
contacts after current interruption.
 SF6 is generally use in present high-voltage circuit
breakers at rated voltage higher than 52 KV.
 Factors responsible for arc:-
 Potential differential between the contacts
 Ionised particles between the contacts

By removing any one of these the arc be

quenched.
Advantages of SF6 CB
 Simple construction, less cost.
 Same gas is re-circulated in the SF6 CB.
 Maintenance free CB.
 Ability to interrupt low and high fault current.
 Excellent arc extinction.
DISADVANTAGES OF SF6 CB
 Arched SF6 gas is poisonous.
 Contribute to the manmade green house effect.
 Continuous monitoring devices are required.
 Special facilities are required for transportation of SF6
gas.
LIMITATION
 SF6 gas found to be greenhouse gas that causes
environmental hazards
 100% SF6 is more hazardous.
 Experimentally suggest that 69% SF6/31%N2 gas
mixtures is better in circuit breaker and non-
hazardous.
 Further research is going on to replace or mixture of
gases for better dielectric strength without
environmental problems.
 CONCLUSION
SF6 circuit breakers are mostly employed for high
voltage applications for protection and reliability of an
electrical substation of an electricity generation,
transmission and distribution system where voltage is
transformed from high to low or the reverse using
transformers.
The countless advantages of this SF6 CB gas has to
offer will take us to new heights in the prevalent power
system.