Synthesis of Parameter Dependency Performance of Saturated Iron-Core Superconducting Fault Current Limiter

Abstract

In modern power systems, fault current limiters (FCL) are used to provide protection against high fault currents during electrical faults and thereby, help serve an uninterrupted supply of electricity to the consumers. Among the various technologies available for FCLs, the saturated iron-core superconducting fault current limiter (SISFCL) has gained a lot of attention on account of its ability to provide very low impedance during normal operation and a high impedance during fault condition. This is achieved by utilizing the change in magnetic state of the ferromagnetic cores between saturation and unsaturation. In this paper, the responses of an SISFCL is analyzed for variations of different parameters, namely, the fault resistance, DC bias current, number of turns of the AC coil and number of turns of the DC coil. Further analysis is also done to study the SISFCL's responses for different B-H characteristics of core materials. The analyses are performed using a mathematical model in MATLAB environment.