LINE-TO-LINE FAULT
DEFINITION
A line to line fault or unsymmetrical fault occurs when two conductors (eg. Overhead Transmission Lines) are short circuited. Symmetrical components are derived
to analyze unsymmetrical faults. The unsymmetrical network can be expressed in terms of three linear symmetrical components. The three symmetrical
components are positive sequence component, negative sequence component and zero sequence component.
DIAGRAMS FOR THIS FAULT (RIGHT:
SIMPLIFIED VERSION. LEFT: COMPLEX
ANALYSIS
EFFECT
• Over current flow: When fault occurs it creates a very low impedance
path for the current flow. This results in a very high current being
drawn from the supply, causing tripping of relays, damaging insulation
and components of the equipments.
• Danger to operating personnel: Fault occurrence can also cause
shocks to individuals. Severity of the shock depends on the current and
voltage at fault location and even may lead to death.
• Loss of equipment: Heavy current due to short circuit faults result in
the components being burnt completely which leads to improper
working of equipment or device. Sometimes heavy fire causes
complete burnout of the equipments.
• Disturbs interconnected active circuits: Faults not only affect the
location at which they occur but also disturbs the active interconnected
circuits to the faulted line.
• Electrical fires: Short circuit causes flashovers and sparks due to the
ionization of air between two conducting paths which further leads to
fire as we often observe in news such as building and shopping complex
fires.
SYMMETRICAL CIRCUITS
LEFT: GENERAL SEQUENCE NETWORK
RIGHT: EQUIVALENT SEQUENCE NETWORK
REMBERT MICHEAL(55005) NUR AKMAL BIN JAMAL(50746) TIMOTIUS SHARWILL ANAK WILLE(50990) ADARSH PHILLIP(51047) MACQUINNE BALING(52398)
CAUSES
• Weather conditions: It includes lighting strikes, heavy rains, heavy
winds, salt deposition on overhead lines and conductors, snow and ice
accumulation on transmission lines, etc. These environmental
conditions interrupt the power supply and also damage electrical
installations.
• Equipment failures: Various electrical equipments like generators,
motors, transformers, reactors, switching devices, etc causes short
circuit faults due to malfunctioning, ageing, insulation failure of cables
and winding. These failures result in high current to flow through the
devices or equipment which further damages it.
• Human errors: Electrical faults are also caused due to human errors
such as selecting improper rating of equipment or devices, forgetting
metallic or electrical conducting parts after servicing or maintenance,
switching the circuit while it is under servicing, etc.
• Smoke of fires: Ionization of air, due to smoke particles, surrounding
the overhead lines results in spark between the lines or between
conductors to insulator. This flashover causes insulators to lose their
insulting capacity due to high voltages.
HOW TO SOLVE
Protection against temperature is termed “overcurrent protection.”
Overcurrents are caused by equipment overloads, by short circuits or
by ground faults. A short circuit occurs when there is a direct but
unintended connection between line-to-line or line-to-neutral
conductors.
Overcurrent protection devices: The designer has many overcurrent
protection devices to choose from. The two most common are fuses
and circuit breakers. Many circuit breakers are also known as molded
case breakers or MCBs.
Fuses: A fuse is the simplest form of overcurrent protective device, but
it can be used only once before it must be replaced. Excess current
flowing through the fuse melts the device’s conducting element and
interrupts current flow. Fuses are rated by the amperage they can carry
before heat melts the element. The fuse is ideal for protection against
short circuits.
Circuit Breakers: Now, conductors in systems are usually protected by
circuit breakers. Tripped circuit breakers can be reset after the fault is
cleared, an advantage over fuses that must be replaced.
Breaker Types:
1) Inverse Time Trips: These breakers trip faster as current increases.
This provides overload protection but also allows equipment and
conductors to carry excessive loads briefly.
2) Adjustable Trips: These breakers are used when the operation of
several protection devices in a system must be coordinated. Designers
place the lowest rated trips nearest to the devices being protected so
that a fault in one area is isolated but allows current elsewhere in the
system to continue to flow.
3) Instantaneous Trips: These use only the magnetic element of the
trip and provide no overload protection. Also known as motor circuit
protectors, or MCPs, they normally are used to protect large motors
from short circuits and ground faults.