Chapter 3 Air Blast Circuit

Breaker

Air Blast Circuit Breaker

Majority of CB for voltages over 110KV today are of air blast
type.
Interruption Methods
Low resistance arc circuit can be interrupted only by providing
the high pressure gas blast to be swept across the contact
space.
The gases which used are compressed air, nitrogen, carbon
dioxide, hydrogen and freon.
Now nitrogen is equivalent in circuit breaking properties to
compressed air and therefore there is no advantage in using
nitrogen.
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 Carbon dioxide has the drawback of its being difficult to

control owing to freezing at valves and other restricted
passages.
Test have been shows that increased breaking capacity can be
obtained by use of hydrogen, but its cost and that of the
ancillary apparatus required are a serious objection.
Freon has high dielectric strength and good extingushing
properties, but it is expensive and it is decomposed by the arc
into acid forming elements.
From the above that compressed air is the accepted circuit
breaking medium.

 All air blast CBs follow the principle of separating their

contacts in a flow of air established by the opening of a blast
valve.
The arc which is drawn is usually rapidly positioned centrally
through a nozzle where it is kept to a fixed length and
subjected to maximum scavenging by the air flow.
Arrangements vary but can be grouped into three types a)
axial blast b) radial blast c) cross blast
Axial blast or radial blast seems to be favored for the higher
voltages.
Although cross blast breakers particularly for voltages about
15 KV and heavy current (up to 100 KA) have proved
satisfactory and required less air than that would by an axial
blast breaker at these high currents.
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 The main structural advantage of the axial blast

circuit breaker over the cross blast is its easier
adaptability to high voltage insulation for outdoor
insulation.
Axial blast cb is used for high and super voltage
application.
In the indoor high power medium voltage class of
cbs current of 2000-4000A are common, requiring
special contacts in order to keep the temp low
enough to prevent damaging oxidation.
A multiple interruption by air blast can be arranged
for very high voltages and exerts a joint radial and
axial cooling by direct air convection.
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Principle of operation
Air blast interruption is dependant on turbulent cooling and
so influenced by aerodynamic configuration, including
nozzles, gas flow passages and mass flow.
Compressed air is an excellent insulant, and is forced on the
arc at the instant of contact separation.
The compressed air sweeps the arc through nozzle, which
helps to exhaust the hot gas and the arcing products to the
atmosphere.
In this way the interrupter of an air-blast CB performs its
operating cycle for its ideal characteristics.

 Extinction occurs at the first current zero when the flow of

compressed air increases rapidly to establish the dielectric
strength between the electrodes to withstand restriking
voltage.
The growth of dielectric strength is rapid and pressure of air is
high.
So that the final gap caused by interposition of insulating layer
of air between the contacts needed to be small.
Thus size of the device is reduces.
The energy supplied for arc extinction is obtained from high
pressure air and is independent of the current to be
interrupted.

Aerodynamic effects during arcing

A knowledge of the air flow characteristic is important to CB
design, since the removal of hot plasma and particular matter
determines both the interrupting ability and also the
dielectric strength.
Initiation of the lateral arc in the air tabulator causes a
pressure disturbance in the flow of compressed air.
The source of the disturbance (i.e hot gas channel) being
initially free, moves downstream at the same velocity as the
compressed air.
The arc is thus transferred rapidly into such a position that it
offers the maximum drag to the air flow, namely, into a central
position along the axis of the nozzle.
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 This rapid transfer is to be expected from a consideration of

the velocity distribution in a typical air blast nozzle.
In this central position, the arc must either stand or fall.
The ensuring aerodynamic condition at the nozzle may be
regarded as a series of momentary disturbance of the flowing
air due to the releases of arc energy from a fixed source;
These disturbance are such that throughout the arcing period,
the stream of air tends to yield to the pressure caused by the
expansion and dissociation of air in the inner stream zones as
this air continuously enters the leading end of the arc zone.
Conversely arc acts almost as an obstacle in nozzle, around
which the bulk of air must flow.

10

 Fig show the pressure and velocity distribution and gas flow through
the nozzles.

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 It is seen that the presence of arcing causes considerable

reduction in the quantity of air passing through the nozzle
because of dissociation and expansion of air in the inner
stream zone.
This effect is dependent on the length of arc and on current
flowing.
At small currents the ionized arc column is repeatedly
disrupted, and the electron discharge is interrupted this is
known as current suppression.
At very large currents the air column gets heated up rapidly
and the interruption becomes difficult and takes a longer
time.
The aerodynamic arrangement of air blast breakers is devised
to make the ratio of air pressure at interrupting nozzles to the
pressure in the receiver as high as possible.

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Basic Construction of Air blast Circuit breaker

Fig shows the essential elements of air blast interrupter.
With the breaker closed, load current is carried by heavy copper main
contacts.

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 Following the instruction to trip, the air blast is turned on by

the opening of a valve and moving contacts set in rapid
motion by the action of compressed air on a piston.
As the contacts part, an arc is either drawn between special
arcing contacts or transferred to them by the blast.
The maximum separation of the contacts is in the region 1020mm and is commonly attained in 3ms.
In air blast CB local air storage may be at earth potential and
air supplied to the interrupters through insulating pipes or it
may be mounted at the level of the interrupters at line
potential and air fed through insulating pipes.

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 The blast valve may be in one of many positions as given

below:
I. Receiver on the ground and blast valve at low level, here the
blast pipe must be filled before the interrupters are supplied
with air.
II. Receiver on the ground and blast at high level, this reduces
the amount of air wasted but requires an insulated drive to
the blast valve.
III. Live receiver and blast valve, shorter opening times are
possible as the air is stored near the interrupter units.

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Factors influencing performance of Air blast

Circuit breaker
a)

b)

Air pressure:
Air is readily compressible and the dielectric switching capabilities have
been shown to increase up to at least 150 atmospheres.
So the performance may be vary as some function of pressure, for the
same contact structure.
The use of high pressure gas permits high mechanism speed and fast arc.
Circuit severity:
Air blast CBs are sensitive to variation in the rate of rise of restriking
voltage which is normally taken as a measure of circuit severity.
Since the blast effect is constant for all currents the rate at which the
gap recovers its dielectric strength, which varies approximately inversely
as the amount of ionization present, i.e inversely as the current and falls
with the increasing MVA.

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If the RRRV is increased above the value indicated for

each MVA level then the additional stress will produce a
sudden increase in arcing time.
The effect of RRRV upon current zero condition, is that
the chance of extinction decreases after the optimum
gap has been reached, as compared with the oil c.b.
where chance of arc extinction is increase from one
current zero to the next.
C) Distance between contacts :
Appreciable variations in performance can be obtained
by varying size of the gap
The best condition for arc extinction is obtained for a
specific optimum distance between contacts.
If this distance is increased or decreased, the arc
extinction becomes less effective and consequently
breaking capacity of breaker will be reduced.

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 It is possible to develop a relation connecting performance

with the geometry of the contact structure.
Consideration of the process of arc extinction leads to the
assumption that if a no of CBS are both aerodynamically and
dielectrically similar, their circuit breaking performance will be
equal.
For aerodynamic similarity, Reynolds Number (vl/u) and
Machs number (v/vs) must be constant
v = velocity between similarly situated points
l = length between the points
U = kinetic viscosity ( which is inversely proportional to
pressure)
U = velocity of sound in gas
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 It can thus be deduced that for equal performance of a no of

geometrically similar CBs the product of air pressure and some
selected linear dimension (e.g nozzle diameter of each) must be
constant.
For dielectric similarity Townsends law are applicable which
requires that the product of mass of gas per cubic centimeter and
some selected linear dimension must be constant, and since this is
precisely the same requirement as for aerodynamic similarity it
follows therefore that both requirements are met simultaneously.
This means that if the air pressure varies between two circuit
breakers as l/p, the dimensions must vary as p/l.
The performance is proportional to the pressure when linear
dimension are constant.
Also increase in pressure allows the contacts to be placed close
together, which increases the performance.

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 If the linear dimension is taken as the diameter of the nozzle

performance at constant voltage can be expressed as follows:
Performance (I X U) proportional (p X d X factor depending
upon nozzle geometry)
Or (I X U/ p X d) proportional (factor depending upon nozzle
geometry)
Where I= current broken, KA
U= RRRV (V/s)
p= pressure at nozzle kg/m2 absolute
d= diameter of nozzle, m
Or I X U/ p X d = function of G/d at constant voltage
Where d= diameter of nozzle, m
G= length of gap, m
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d) Contact material : A definite improvement in performance is

observed by the use of high-boiling point metals, such as the
tungsten-copper compounds.
By the use of these metals the breaking capacity can be
increased, burning and erosion considerably reduced and
flame emission minimized.
The development of such metals coupled with the short
arcing time of the air blast CB has made it possible to produce
contacts that will not need replacing during the lifetime of a
CB.

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e) Area of cross section of the exit hole: The breaking capacity is

increased with the area of cross-section of the exit through
which hot and decomposed gas can escape.
This is explained by the fact that the arc liberates tremendous
heat in very short duration of time and air within the chamber
suddenly expands almost with explosion.
There are cases when exit is so small that fresh supply of air
cannot enter fast enough and the arc left unquenched over a
long period.

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f)

1)
2)
3)
4)

Resistance switching: it is well known that resistance in parallel with the

CB damps the voltage oscillation.
When the voltage and MVA of a circuit are fixed, the transient can be
influenced only by increasing C or reducing R.
To increase C is uneconomical, but a reduction in R can be brought about
by shunting the breaker with a resistor during switching period.
The shunt resistor may perform one or more of the following functions.
To reduce the rate of rise and amplitude of restriking voltage transient and
thus make the duty easy.
To reduce transient voltage produced when switching inductive or
capacitive loads.
To improve uniformity of voltage sharing in case of multibreak CB
To suppress and to control the switching surge severity in an EHV system

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g) Mass flow:
The breaking capacity of air-blast CB depends upon the mass of air
flowing per unit time through the nozzle in the arcing chamber.
The presence of arc obstructs the flow of air and this depends on
the temp of arc column, since the mass flow is roughly inversely
proportional to temperature.
The mass flow number (M) defined as the ratio of mass flow of air
per unit time with the arc to the mass flow of air per unit time
without arc, is taken into account to express the performance of CB.
Mass flow no (M) has been shown to be a function of I/(d1.5 p0.5)
I = rms current
d= nozzle diameter
p= reservoir pressure

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Performance of Circuit breakers and system

requirements
1)

Voltage distribution in oil Circuit breakers with plain break

In this type of CB because of the nature of the interruption
process, the conditions following the final current zero tend
to be unstable in character.
Usually long arc is drawn and the arc resistance does not
reach infinite value at current zero with the result that
some leakage current flows.
This leakage current can play a dual role, i.e. either it can
make the performance of the breaker a success or it can
vitiate the interruption process.
The leakage current damps the restriking voltage
oscillations thereby reducing circuit severity and make
interruption easier.
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 At same time, the leakage provides a form of resistance grading which helps
in equalizing the distribution of the restriking voltage across the multibreak
system.
This can be understand by taking simple case of a bulk oil CB with two
breaks per pole.

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 In the event of phase-to-ground fault, the voltage distribution

between CB contacts can be easily found from the equivalent
circuit
V1/V2 = C1+C2/C1
C1 and C2 are of the same order but C3 is much greater than
C1 or C2, hence V1> V2
But if there is an appreciable leakage current through the arc,
the capacitance voltage control may be swamped
The leakage current may increases with rising voltage stress,
in which case the arc restirkes.

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Voltage distribution in oil CB with arc control devices

The erratic operation of the plain breaker CB , voltage damping effect can
be reduced with the Oil CB
Voltage distribution of such type is as shown in fig

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 Under these conditions, capacitance will control the

voltage distribution and only a small part of the
voltage duty is carried by second break, it has been
shown that a major part of the voltage comes across
the first break, i.e capacitance C1
In this respect the second break is of little value.
But if the advantages of the multibreak are to be
deprived then it has to be fitted with positive voltage
grading and damping devices in the form of shunt
resistors.
These additions though expensive, make the ehv oil
CB reliable by performing consistently the function of
leakage current had previously carried out in the
plain-break oil CB.

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Speed of Operation
Uptil now fault clearance times of 140ms have been
acceptable; this allows 60ms for the relays and 80ms for the
breaker.
MOCB breakers meet this requirement very easily
This time can be reduced by improved designed
Fault clearance timings of 3 cycles are being specified
nowadays
This allows one cycle for the relay and two cycle of the beaker.

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Terminal Short Circuit and RRRV

These two factors are against each other during current
interruption at current zero.
Under short circuit the stress on CB depends on the current
and rate at which the voltage rises across the contacts of the
CB.
The rate of rise of voltage across the CB contacts just after
current zero is defined by the capacitance, inductance and
resistance of the system.
In the forced blast CB the rate of rise of dielectric strength is
initially low.
Due to this the air blast CB is sensitive to RRRV.
Forced blast designs have special advantages in the high
voltage field, where rapid interruption is important.
They have been developed in multibreak form employing
capacitance voltage-grading across the gaps (fig).
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 With both oil blast and air blast,

the dielectric is independent of
fault current.
It follows that these CB can
interrupt low currents at very
high RRRV with the same arc
duration.
Therefore the increase in arc
duration under low current
condition is avoided.
And no increase in velocity of the
dielectric is obtained at heavy
currents; in fact it is reduced so
that the RRRV becomes less than
that at small currents.
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Interruption of small inductive current

When small inductive current, such as those flowing through
transformers on no load are interrupted before natural zero,
i.e current chopping , voltage oscillations, which lead to
transient over voltages result.
The voltage oscillations are caused both on line as well as
supply side
The magnitude of over voltage will usually be high on the line
side due to high impedance of transformer
The over voltages produced during interruption of small
inductive currents can be limited by repetitive restrikes in the
CBs or by fitting shunt resistor of suitable values across the CB

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 Oil CB with arc control devices operate satisfactory under

these conditions while forced-blast breaker may produce over
voltages and special means have to be provided to prevent
them.
Normally minimum oil CBs do not give an over voltage factor
exceeding 2.5
However if lower over voltage factor is required, these
breakers can be fitted with shunt resistor

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Interruption of capacitive currents

Modern CBs are required to interrupt long transmission lines on no load very
frequently
Under certain circumstances these interruption may produce overvoltages.
For interruption of capacitive currents the ideal is restike free performance of
the circuit breaker
For most the system up to 132Kv one or two restrikes are permitted provide
the maximum overvoltage is limited to 2.5 to 3 times the normal
For system voltage 220Kv and above it is necessary to have restike free CB.
MOCB of multibreak design and having artificial oil injection are restrike free
and do not produce overvoltages while interrupting capacitive currents or
disconnecting unloaded lines
Air blast CBs are also restike free and hence are preferred for system voltages
of 220Kv and above

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High speed reclosing

Many faults in the power systems are transient in nature and
cause disconnection of the circuit without damage to the lines
or plant
For successful auto reclosing the characteristics of CB and
networks have to be taken into consideration
1) The fault current must be interrupted in the shortest
possible time, to avoid transient fault establishing into a
sustained fault.
2) the supply should be regain as soon as possible to minimize
inconvenience to consumer.
3) A minimum dead time must be allowed for dielectric
strength at the fault point to recover.
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 4) the CB mechanism must be allowed time to establish

before reclosure is attempted
For performing auto-reclosing duty, the operating mechanism
of CB is arranged in such a way that if after first reclosing the
fault is not cleared the breaker performance a second
interruption after which the system is permanently isolated
from the fault
The dead time is usually in the range of 0.2 to 0.6 second.

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Short line fault

If a fault occurs close to sub-station the initial rate of rise of
restriking voltage is high but the amplitude is low
If a fault occurs away form the breaker the initial rate of rise is
low but amplitude is high The breaker will not be overstressed
in both the cases
Between the above the cases there are intermediate ranges
(500m to 6Km) where both the amplitude as well as rate of
rise of first loop may be of such value as to cause the restrike
in the breaker.
MOCB are not sensitive to short-line faults.
This is due to the fact dielectric restoration curve of oil CB and
in most cases the dielectric restoration curve are above
restriking voltage curve.

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 Modification of circuit breaker duty by shunt

resistors
1. Linear resistance damping
2. Non-linear resistance shunt
Power factor correction by series resistance
Comparative merits of different types of
conventional circuit breakers

Thank you