Design, modelling, and test of a solid-state main breaker for hybrid DC circuit breaker

Abstract

Driven by the requirements of reducing air pollutant gas emissions and fuel consumption, the concepts of more electric ship and electric aircraft are attracting increasing attention. Medium voltage DC (MVDC) distribution architectures have been proposed as potential candidates to transmit and distribute energy from generators to motors in these applications. However, the low impedance in MVDC systems results in extremely fast propagation speed of fault currents. Therefore, it is necessary to interrupt the DC fault in a very short period. This paper investigates a solid-state circuit breaker with an ultrafast interruption speed as a main breaker for a hybrid DC circuit breaker. A simulation model of the hybrid circuit breaker is established using PLECS software to evaluate the performance of the main breaker. A 1 kV solid-state main breaker prototype based on series and parallel connected insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) is built. Series and parallel connection of IGBTs are implemented to increase the voltage and current level. The maximum voltage across the solid-state circuit breaker is limited to 1.8 kV during current interruption. The solid-state main breaker prototype is experimentally tested under dynamic current conditions. The solid-state main breaker prototype successfully interrupts current of 400 A within 300 microseconds and presents good voltage balancing as well as current sharing performance. The experimental results show good agreement with the simulation results.