Superconducting fault current limiter with fast vacuum commutation modulus

Abstract

A new approach to a problem of creation of a resistive version of superconducting fault current limiters (FCL) on the basis of HTS materials has been considered. According to this approach, a scheme of FCL is added by a commutation modulus which contains a fast vacuum interrupter. This interrupter allows one to switch off the transport current as soon as 5 ms after transition of the HTS element to the normal state. The proposed scheme allows one to restrict more than an order in value a necessary operation time of FCL in a regime of a current limitation. As a result, a time of recovering the superconducting state can be significantly reduced that allows FCL to operate in automatic iterative regime. The considering device can operate not only in high voltage ac transmission lines but also in dc electrical networks. A numerical simulation of transit processes in a proposed scheme of FCL has been performed for different regimes and its features are analyzed with respect to other schemes of FCL. An experimental study of test mock-up commutation elements of FCL has been performed. This study demonstrates an efficiency of the proposed scheme. A test of a FCL model with the limiting current up to 15 kA has been realized.