Relationship between current waveform just before current zero and interruption ability of high-speed VCB

A high‐speed vacuum circuit breaker which forces the fault current to zero was investigated. The test circuit breaker consisted of a vacuum interrupter and a high‐frequency current source. A vacuum interrupter with an axial magnetic field electrode and a disk‐shaped electrode was tested. The arcing period of the high‐speed vacuum circuit breaker is much shorter than that of a conventional circuit breaker. The arc behavior of the test electrodes immediately after the contact separation was observed by a high‐speed video recorder. The relation between the current waveform just before the current zero point and the interruption ability was investigated experimentally by varying the high‐frequency current source. The results demonstrate the interruption ability and the arc behavior of the high‐speed vacuum circuit breaker. Effective current interruption is made possible by a low current period just before the current zero point, even though the arcing time is short and the arc is concentrated. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 172(2): 20–27, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/eej.20915