Analysis of multiple-faults of high-voltage circuit breakers based on non-negative matrix decomposition

High-voltage circuit breakers are the core equipment in power networks,and to a certain extent,are related to the safe and reliable operation of power systems.However,their core components are prone to mechanical faults.This study proposes a component separation method to detect multiple mechanical faults in circuit breakers that can achieve online real-time monitoring.First,a model and strategy are presented for obtaining mechanical voiceprint signals from circuit breakers.Subsequently,the component separation method was used to decompose the voiceprint signals of multiple faults into individual component signals.Based on this,the recognition of the features of a single-fault voiceprint signal can be achieved.Finally,multiple faults in high-voltage circuit breakers were identified through an experimental simulation and verification of the circuit breaker voiceprint signals collected from the substation site.The research results indicate that the proposed method exhibits excellent performance for multiple mechanical faults,such as spring structures and loose internal components of circuit breakers.In addition,it provides a reference method for the real-time online monitoring of high-voltage circuit breakers.

Fluid-chemical modeling of the near-cathode sheath formation process in a high current broken in DC air circuit breaker

When the contacts of a medium-voltage DC air circuit breaker(DCCB) are separated, the energy distribution of the arc is determined by the formation process of the near-electrode sheath. Therefore, the voltage drop through the near-electrode sheath is an important means to build up the arc voltage, which directly determines the current-limiting performance of the DCCB. A numerical model to describe the near-electrode sheath formation process can provide insight into the physical mechanism of the arc formation, and thus provide a method for arc energy regulation. In this work, we establish a two-dimensional axisymmetric time-varying model of a medium-voltage DCCB arc when interrupted by high current based on a fluid-chemical model involving 16 kinds of species and 46 collision reactions. The transient distributions of electron number density, positive and negative ion number density, net space charge density, axial electric field, axial potential between electrodes, and near-cathode sheath are obtained from the numerical model. The computational results show that the electron density in the arc column increases, then decreases, and then stabilizes during the near-cathode sheath formation process, and the arc column's diameter gradually becomes wider. The 11.14 V–12.33 V drops along the17 μm space charge layer away from the cathode(65.5 k V/m–72.5 k V/m) when the current varies from 20 k A–80 k A.The homogeneous external magnetic field has little effect on the distribution of particles in the near-cathode sheath core,but the electron number density at the near-cathode sheath periphery can increase as the magnetic field increases and the homogeneous external magnetic field will lead to arc diffusion. The validity of the numerical model can be proven by comparison with the experiment.

Comprehensive evaluation of chemical breakers for multistage network ultra-high strength gel

Polymer gels have been accepted as a useful tool to address many sealing operations such as drilling and completion,well stimulation,wellbore integrity,water and gas shutoff,etc.Previously,we developed an ultra-high strength gel(USGel)for medium to ultra-low temperature reservoirs.However,the removal of USGel is a difficult problem for most temporary plugging operations.This paper first provides new insights into the mechanism of USGel,where multistage network structure and physical entanglement are the main reasons for USGel possessing ultra-high strength.Then the effects of acid breakers,encapsulated breakers,and oxidation breakers(including H_(2)O_(2),Na_(2)S_(2)O_(8),Ca(ClO)_(2),H_(2)O_(2)+NaOH,Na_(2)S_(2)O_(8)+NaOH,and Ca(ClO)_(2)+NaOH)were evaluated.The effects of component concentration and temperature on the breaking solution were studied,and the corrosion performance,physical simulation and formation damage tests of the breaking solution were carried out.The final formulation of 2%-4%NaOH+4.5%-6%H_(2)O_(2) breaking solution was determined,which can make USGel completely turn into water at 35e105C.The combinations of“acid t breaking solution”,“acid+encapsulated breaker”and“encapsulated breaker+breaking solution”were evaluated for breaking effect.The acid gradually reduced the volume of USGel,which increased the contact area between breaking solution and USGel,and the effect of“4%acid+breaking solution”was 23 times higher than that of breaking solution alone at 35C.However,the acid significantly reduced the strength of USGel.This paper provides new insights into the breaking of high-strength gels with complex network structures.

Magneto-hydrodynamic simulation study of direct current multi-contact circuit breaker for equalizing breaking arc

This work is based on a direct current(DC)natural current commutation topology,which uses load-carrying branch contacts carrying rated current and multiple sets of series arcing branch contacts in parallel to achieve circuit breaking.The proposed topology can meet the new requirements of higher voltage DC switches in aviation,aerospace,energy and other fields.First,a magneto-hydrodynamic arc model is built using COMSOL Multiphysics,and the different arc breaking characteristics of the arcing branch contacts in different gas environments are simulated.Then,a voltage uniformity coefficient is used to measure the voltage sharing effect in the process of dynamic interruption.In order to solve the dispersion of arcing contact action,a structural control method is adopted to improve the voltage uniformity coefficient.The uniform voltage distribution can improve the breaking capacity and electrical life of the series connection structure.

Breaker温度开关自动上料设备的设计

为解决现行生产制程所引起的Breaker电池连接片产能不足、装配要求高等问题,设计出从Breaker散料排列、凸轮机械手转运、Breaker自动定位、Breaker治具辅助定位上料等整个过程的Breaker自动上料设备。Breaker散料排列单元采用料仓自动供料、振动圆盘及直线振实现Breaker的逐个顺序排列与连续供料;采用旋转分列机构完成单个元件的分离;凸轮机械手采用盘形凸轮与圆柱凸轮相结合的方式完成举升及旋转动作,以较小的体积实现三工位Breaker的转运;Breaker翻转机构采用端面凸轮完成Breaker的翻转。整机达到了设备替代制程的自动化指标。

A Fault Current Limiting Hybrid DC Circuit Breaker

Due to the low impedance characteristic of the high voltage direct current(HVDC)grid,the fault current rises extremely fast after a DC-side fault occurs,and this phenomenon seriously endangers the safety of the HVDC grid.In order to suppress the rising speed of the fault current and reduce the current interruption requirements of the main breaker(MB),a fault current limiting hybrid DC circuit breaker(FCL-HCB)has been proposed in this paper,and it has the capability of bidirectional fault current limiting and fault current interruption.After the occurrence of the overcurrent in the HVDC grid,the current limiting circuit(CLC)of FCL-HCB is put into operation immediately,and whether the protected line is cut off or resumed to normal operation is decided according to the fault detection result.Compared with the traditional hybrid DC circuit breaker(HCB),the required number of semiconductor switches and the peak value of fault current after fault occurs are greatly reduced by adopting the proposed device.Extensive simulations also verify the effectiveness of the proposed FCL-HCB.

Research on Online Monitoring Methods on SF_(6) Circuit Breakers

To promote the accuracy and application of arcing time measurement for SF_6 circuit breaker in substation,five measurement methods are investigated by two cases experimentally. First,the test results of the five methods for a circuit breaker in different stages of wear and a circuit breaker with a component failure were presented. Then,the time error is analyzed by simulation.Finally,the advantage and disadvantage of these methods are discussed.

基于激光位移传感器的Breaker电池保护连接片厚度测量系统

为了解决现有制程中连接片厚度异常、漏检及变形问题,同时也为了消除非接触式测量金属薄片因被测表面凹凸及变形等因素造成的测量误差,设计了Breaker电池保护连接片厚度测量系统。采用扩散反射线光束型激光位移传感器,便于上下两组激光发射光束同轴的调整;对被测表面多点采样作平滑化、平均化处理,降低连接片表面凹凸及变形等对测量的影响;精确定位被测对象后,系统再实时采样上下激光数据,保证上下激光数据的同步;实时标定厚度测量基准值,保证测量准确性;采用双轴水平传感仪对系统作水平度标定,保证上下激光发射光束与被测物表面垂直,提高测量精度。

Numerical Study on Arc Plasma Behavior During Arc Commutation Process in Direct Current Circuit Breaker

This paper focuses on the numerical investigation of arc plasma behavior during arc commutation process in a medium-voltage direct current circuit breaker （DCCB） contact system. A three-dimensional magneto-hydrodynamic （MHD） model of air arc plasma in the contact system of a DCCB is developed, based on commercial software FLUENT. Coupled electromagnetic and gas dynamic interactions are considered as usual, and a thin layer of nonlinear electrical resistance elements is used to represent the voltage drop of plasma sheath and the formation of new arc root. The distributions of pressure, temperature, gas flow and current density of arc plasma in arc region are calculated. The simulation results indicate that the pressure distribution related to the contact system has a strong effect on the arc commutation process, arising from the change of electrical conductivity in the arc root region. In DCCB contact system, the pressure of arc root region will be concentrated and higher if the space above the moving contact is enclosed, which is not good for arc root commutation. However, when the region is opened, the pressure distribution would be lower and more evenly, which is favorable for the arc root commutation.

Particle Swarm Optimization-Support Vector Machine Model for Machinery Fault Diagnoses in High-Voltage Circuit Breakers

According to statistic data,machinery faults contribute to largest proportion of High-voltage circuit breaker failures,and traditional maintenance methods exist some disadvantages for that issue.Therefore,based on the wavelet packet decomposition approach and support vector machines,a new diagnosis model is proposed for such fault diagnoses in this study.The vibration eigenvalue extraction is analyzed through wavelet packet decomposition,and a four-layer support vector machine is constituted as a fault classifier.The Gaussian radial basis function is employed as the kernel function for the classifier.The penalty parameter c and kernel parameterδof the support vector machine are vital for the diagnostic accuracy,and these parameters must be carefully predetermined.Thus,a particle swarm optimizationsupport vector machine model is developed in which the optimal parameters c andδfor the support vector machine in each layer are determined by the particle swarm algorithm.The validity of this fault diagnosis model is determined with a real dataset from the operation experiment.Moreover,comparative investigations of fault diagnosis experiments with a normal support vector machine and a particle swarm optimization back-propagation neural network are also implemented.The results indicate that the proposed fault diagnosis model yields better accuracy and e-ciency than these other models.

Study on the Mathematical Model of Dielectric Recovery Characteristics in High Voltage SF6 Circuit Breaker

According to the stream theory, this paper proposes a mathematical model of the dielectric recovery characteristic based on the two-temperature ionization equilibrium equation. Taking the dynamic variation of charged particle＇s ionization and attachment into account, this model can be used in collaboration with the Coulomb collision model, which gives the relationship of the heavy particle temperature and electron temperature to calculate the electron density and temperature under different pressure and electric field conditions, so as to deliver the breakdown electric field strength under different pressure conditions. Meanwhile an experiment loop of the circuit breaker has been built to measure the breakdown voltage. It is shown that calculated results are in conformity with experiment results on the whole while results based on the stream criterion are larger than experiment results. This indicates that the mathematical model proposed here is more accurate for calculating the dielectric recovery characteristic, it is derived from the stream model with some improvement and refinement and has great significance for increasing the simulation accuracy of circuit breaker＇s interruption characteristic.

The Voltage Distribution Characteristics of a Hybrid Circuit Breaker During High Current Interruption

Hybrid circuit breaker （HCB） technology based on a vacuum interrupter and a SF6 interrupter in series has become a new research direction because of the low-carbon requirements for high voltage switches. The vacuum interrupter has an excellent ability to deal with the steep rising part of the transient recovery voltage （TRV）, while the SF6 interrupter can withstand the peak part of the voltage easily. An HCB can take advantage of the interrupters in the current interruption process. In this study, an HCB model based on the vacuum ion diffusion equations, ion density equation, and modified Cassie-Mayr arc equation is explored. A simulation platform is constructed by using a set of software called the alternative transient program （ATP）. An HCB prototype is also designed, and the short circuit current is interrupted by the HCB under different action sequences of contacts. The voltage distribution of the HCB is analyzed through simulations and tests. The results demonstrate that if the vacuum interrupter withstands the initial TRV and interrupts the post-arc current first, then the recovery speed of the dielectric strength of the SF6 interrupter will be fast. The voltage distribution between two interrupters is determined by their post-arc resistance, which happens after current-zero, and subsequently, it is determined by the capacitive impedance after the post-arc current decays to zero.

Influence of Shock Wave on Turbulence in SF_6 Puffer Circuit Breaker

Influence of the shock wave on the turbulence in a supersonic nozzle was investigated for a SF6 puffer circuit breaker interruption process. Turbulence is enlarged through the shock wave. Baroclinic generation of vortex causes flow separation and broadening of the arc cross section. V-I characteristics are slightly modified due to the shock wave＇s influence.

Analysis of Arc Characteristics and Flow Field in Arc Chamber of High-Voltage SF_6 Auto-Expansion Circuit Breaker

A new magnetic hydro-dynamics model for nozzle arc emphasizing the interaction of arc with PTFE （polytetrafluorethylene） vapour is established based on the conservation equations. The interruption of auto-expansion circuit breaker is simulated numerically by finite element method and the influence of PTFE vapour on the arc is analysed with this model. The results reveal that the flow field inside the arc chamber is determined by the arc current, the arcing time, the nozzle arc and the clogging of its thermal boundary. The establishment of quenching pressure relies on both SF6 gas and PTFE vapour that absorbed arc energy in the nozzle. The PTFE vapour leads to an increase in the pressure of nozzle arc obviously, and a decrease in the temperature of arc. But it enhances the temperature of arc at zero current and slows down the decreasing rate of arc temperature as the current decreases.

Influence of the axial magnetic field on sheath development after current zero in a vacuum circuit breaker

After current zero,which is the moment when the vacuum circuit breaker interrupts a vacuum arc,sheath development is the first process in the dielectric recovery process.An axial magnetic field（AMF） is widely used in the vacuum circuit breaker when the high-current vacuum arc is interrupted.Therefore,it is very important to study the influence of different AMF amplitudes on the sheath development.The objective of this paper is to study the influence of different AMF amplitudes on the sheath development from a micro perspective.Thus,the particle in cell-Monte Carlo collisions（PIC-MCC） method was adopted to develop the sheath development model.We compared the simulation results with the experimental results and then validated the simulation.We also obtained the speed of the sheath development and the energy density of the ions under different AMF amplitudes.The results showed mat the larger the AMF amplitudes are,the faster the sheath develops and the lower the ion energy density is,meaning the breakdown is correspondingly more difficult.

Simulation and Experimental Analysis of Arc Motion Characteristics in Air Circuit Breaker

In this paper, to simulate the arc motion in an air circuit breaker （ACB）, a three- dimensional magneto-hydrodynamic （MHD） model is developed, considering the influence of ther- mal radiation, the change of physical parameters of arc plasma and the nonlinear characteristic of ferromagnetic material. The distributions of pressure, temperature, gas flow and current density of arc plasma in the arc region are calculated. The simulation results show some phenomena which discourage arc interruption, such as back commutation and arc burning at the back of the splitter plate. To verify the simulation model, the arc motion is studied experimentally. The influences of the material and position of the innermost barrier plate are analyzed mainly. It proved that the model developed in this paper can efficiently simulate the arc motion. The results indicate that the insulation barrier plate close to the top of the splitter plate is conducive to the arc splitting, which leads to the significant increase of the arc voltage, so it is better for arc interruption. The research can provide methods and references to the optimization of ACB design.

Research on arc root stagnation when small current is interrupted in self-excited circuit breaker

The self-excited DC air circuit breaker(SE-DCCB)has been widely used in urban rail transit due to its excellent stability.It can realize forward and reverse interruption,but has difficulty interrupting small currents due to the phenomenon of arc root sticking at the entrance of the arc chamber in the splitting process,which is known as arc root stagnation.A coupling model of the self-excited magnetic field and magnetohydrodynamics is established for the SE-DCCB with the traditional structure.The magnetic field,temperature and airflow distribution in the arc chamber are investigated with an interrupting current of 150 A.The simulation results show that the direction and magnitude of the magnetic blowout force are the dominant factors in the arc root stagnation.The local high temperature of the arc chamber due to arc root stagnation increases the obstruction effect of the airflow vortex on the arc root movement,which significantly increases the arc duration time of small current interruption.Based on the research,the structure of the magnetic conductance plate of the actual product is improved,which can improve the direction and magnitude of the magnetic blowout force at the arc root so as to restrain the development of the airflow vortex effectively and solve the problem of arc root stagnation when the small current is interrupted.The simulation results show that the circuit breaker with improved structure has a better performance for a small current interruption range from 100 A to 350 A.

Influence of dc Component during Inadvertent Operation of the High Voltage Generator Circuit Breaker during Mis-Synchronization

This paper analyses the synchronization problem of a generator onto power system without satisfying synchronization condition. The main focus of the paper is on the impact of the dc component of the current in the high voltage circuit breaker during its close-open operating cycle. Using real time measurements of currents/voltages and angles during the close-opening cycle of high voltage generator circuit breaker and the impact of the dc component of current in context of interrupting large magnitude of current from the circuit breaker. In addition, the paper describes a study case model and the results of simulations performed using the software EMTP-ATP of an actual incident that occurred during the inadvertent synchronization of a large 339 MW, 24 kV generator to the grid.

Transient Ablation Regime in Circuit Breakers

Nozzle wall ablation caused by high temperature electric arcs is studied in the context of high voltage SF6 circuit breakers. The simplified ablation model used in litterature has been updated to take into account the unsteady state of ablation. Ablation rate and velocity are now calculated by a kinetic model using two layers of transition, between the bulk plasma and the ablating wall. The first layer （Knudsen layer）, right by the wall, is a kinetic layer of a few mean-free path of thickness. The second layer is collision dominated and makes the transition between the kinetic layer and the plasma bulk. With this new coupled algorithm, it is now possible to calculate the temperature distribution inside the wall, as well as more accurate ablation rates.

New Breakdown Electric Field Calculation for SF6 High Voltage Circuit Breaker Applications

The critical electric fields of hot SF6 are calculated including both electron and ion kinetics in wide ranges of temperature and pressure, namely from 300 K up to 4000 K and 2 atmospheres up to 32 atmospheres respectively. Based on solving a multi-term electron Boltz- mann equation the calculations use improved electron-gas collision cross sections for twelve SF6 dissociation products with a particular emphasis on the electron-vibrating molecule interactions. The ion kinetics is also considered and its role on the critical field becomes non negligible as the temperature is above 2000 K. These critical fields are then used in hydrodynamics simulations which correctly predict the circuit breaker behaviours observed in the case of breaking tests.