Inductive FCL's impact on circuit breaker's interruption condition during short-line faults

Abstract

Fault current magnitude and transient recovery voltage (TRV) are two important factors effecting circuit breaker (CB) operation during short-line faults. In this paper an inductive fault current limiter (FCL), which is a traditional kind of FCL, is modeled and simulated using electromagnetic transient program (EMTP) to study its effects on these two factors. It is assumed that the FCL is placed following the circuit breaker at the beginning of the line. Mathematical formulas are obtained for describing the relationship between the current limit factor and the recovery voltage of a CB as well as the rate of rise of recovery voltage (RRRV) based on theoretical analysis. The mathematical analysis is compared and verified with simulation results.