Theory of current interruption- energy balance

and recovery rate theory, arc quenching,

recovery and restriking voltages - Types of circuit
breakers. bulk oil and minimum oil, air break
and air blast, sulphur hexafluoride (SF6) and
vacuum circuit breakers - Rating selection and
testing of circuit breakers/operating
mechanisms - LT switchgear, HRC fuses, types
construction and applications.

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 SWITCH GEAR
• It is used for switching , controlling and
protecting the electrical circuits and
equipment.
• It concerned with switching and interrupting
currents under normal or abnormal operating
conditions.
• Fuse is the simplest form of switchgear.
• A circuit breaker is a switchgear which open or
close the electrical circuits.

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• In an electric power system, switchgear is the
combination of electrical disconnect switches, fuses
or circuit breakers used to control, protect and
isolate electrical equipment.
• Switchgear is used both to de-energize equipment to
allow work to be done and to clear faults
downstream.
• This type of equipment is important because it is
directly linked to the reliability of the electricity
supply.

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 FEATURES OF SWITCHGEAR:
• Complete reliability.
• Absolutely certain discrimination.
• Quick operation.
• Provision for manual control.
• Provision for instruments.

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 SWITCHGEAR EQUIPMENT
1.Switches
i. Air-break switch.
ii.Isolator.
iii. Oil switches.
2.Fuses.
3.Circuit breaker.
4.Relays.

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 SWITCHGEAR

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• Switchgear is often inspected using thermal imaging to
assess the state of the system and predict failures
before they occur.
• Other methods include partial discharge (PD) testing,
using either fixed or portable testers, and acoustic
emission testing using surface-mounted transducers
(for oil equipment) or ultrasonic detectors used in
outdoor switchyards.
• Temperature sensors fitted to cables to the switchgear
can permanently monitor temperature build-up.
• SF6 equipment is invariably fitted with alarms and
interlocks to warn of loss of pressure, and to prevent
operation if the pressure falls too low.

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 Fault clearing process
• The protective relays are connected in the secondary circuits of
current transformers and/or potential transformers.
• The relays sense abnormal conditions and generate a trip
command for the circuit breaker.The circuit breaker opens its
contacts.As the contacts separate an arc is drawn between
them.
• The arc is extinguished by suitable medium and technique.The
stresses occurring on the circuit breaker while interrupting the
arc,can be analysed by studying the following transient
phenomena :
• Transient variation of the short-circuit currents
• Transient variation of the voltage after final arc interruption
(transient recovery voltage)

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• After final arc extinction, a high voltage wave appears
across the circuit-breaker contacts tending to re-
establish the arc. This transient voltage wave is called
Transient Recovery Voltage (TRV).

• In circuit-breakers the mode of arc extinction is either

‘high resistance interruption, or ‘ zero-point
interruption’.

• High Resistance Interruption : In this technique the

resistance of the arc is increased by lengthening and
cooling. This method is used in air-break circuit
breakers and DC circuit breakers.

• Zero Point Interruption : In this technique the arc gets

extinguished at the natural current zero of the AC
wave and is prevented from restriking again. This
principle is applied in almost all AC circuit-breakers.
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 Circuit Breaker
Electrical circuit breaker is a switching device which can be operated manually
as well as automatically for controlling and protection of electrical power
system respectively. As the modern power system deals with huge currents,
the special attention should be given during designing of circuit breaker to
safe interruption of arc produced during the operation of circuit breaker.
• Types of Circuit Breaker (According to their arc quenching medium)
—Oil circuit breaker.
—Air-Break circuit breaker.
—Air Blast circuit breaker.
—SF6 circuit breaker.
—Vacuum circuit breaker.
• Types of Circuit Breaker (According to External Design)
—Dead Tank type
—Live Tank Type
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• Types of Circuit Breaker (According to their services)
— Outdoor circuit breaker
— Indoor breaker.
• Types of Circuit Breaker (According to the operating mechanism)
— Spring operated circuit breaker.
— Pneumatic circuit breaker.
— Hydraulic circuit breaker.
• Types of Circuit Breaker (According to the voltage level of types)
— Extra High Voltage circuit breaker (above 765kV)
— Ultra High Voltage circuit breaker (300kV to 765kV)
— High voltage circuit breaker (66kV to 220kV)
— Medium voltage circuit breaker (1kV to 52kV)
— Low voltage circuit breaker (less than 1kV)
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 Air-Break circuit breaker.
• It is used for high current interruption at low
voltage.
• The air at atmosphere pressure is used as an arc
extinguishing medium.
• These circuit breakers employ the high resistance
interruption principle.
• The arc is rapidly lengthened by means of the arc
runners and arc chutes and the resistance of the
arc is increased by cooling, lengthening and
splitting the arc.
• It used in D.C. circuits and A.C. Circuits up to 12
kV.
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• The air circuit breakers are generally indoor type and installed
on vertical panels or indoor draw-out type switchgear.
• A.C. air-break circuit breakers are widely used in
indoor medium voltage and low voltage switchgear. Typical
reference values of ratings of air-break circuit-breakers are:
460 V, 400‫ـــــــ‬3500A, 40 ‫ـــــــ‬75 kA.
3.3kV, 400‫ـــــــ‬3500A, 13.1 ‫ـــــــ‬31.5 kA.
6.6kV, 400‫ـــــــ‬2400A, 13.1 ‫ـــــــ‬20 kA.
• Magnetic field is utilized for lengthening the arc in high
voltage air-break circuit breakers.
• A blow out coil is employed to provide the magnetic field to
speed up arc movement and to direct the arc into arc splitters.
• It is not connected in the circuit permanently, it come into
circuit by the arc automatically during the breaking process.

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Arc Extinction in A.C Air-break C.B.
• In a.c. air-break circuit breakers, the arc is lengthened,
cooled and splitted so as to increase the resistance of the
arc.
• The rapid increase in the arc resistance causes the
reduction in the fault current and the fault current does
not reach prospective high value.
• The arc extinction process is assisted by the current zeros
in the A.C. wave.
• The voltage drop across the arc goes on increasing with
the increase in the arc resistance and at a current zero,
when the recovery voltage across the contacts is less
than the arc-voltage, the arc gets extinguished.
• The energy in the system inductance at current zero is
zero.
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 Air Blast Circuit Breaker
• Compressed air at a pressure of 20-30kg/cm2 is
employed as an arc quenching medium.
• Suitable for operating voltage 132kV and above.
• Nowadays the air blast CB are becoming absolute.
• Switching resistors – reduce the transient voltage
• Capacitors – are employed equalize the voltage across
the breakers.
kV 66 132 220 400 750
No of CB 2 2-4 2-6 4-12 8-12
Breaking Capacitor 5000 10000 20000 35000 60000
(MVA)

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Air blast CB are classified into three types
• Axial Blast Type - air blast is directed along the arc path.
• Cross Blast Type - air blast is directed at right angles to the arc path.
• Radial Blast Type - air blast is directed radially.

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 Axial Blast Air Circuit Breaker
Under Normal Condition
• The fixed and moving contacts are held in closed
position with the help of spring pressure.
• There is an air reservoir connected to the arcing
chamber through an air valve. The air valve
control the flow of air into the arcing chamber.
The valve is closed under normal conditions.
Under Faulty Condition
• When a fault occurs a tripping impulse is
produced which causes opening of the air valve.
Since the air valve connects the air reservoir and
the arcing chamber, a high pressure air enters to
the arcing chamber.
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•This air pushes away the moving contact against the spring
pressure. The moving contact is separated and an arc is struck.
•At the same time high pressure air blast flows along the arc and
takes away the ionised gases along with it.
•Consequently the arc is extinguished and current flow is
interrupted.

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• The contact seperation required for arc
extinction is very small generally (1.75 or so ).
• This small gap may sometimes inadequate
clearence for the normal sevice voltage.
Therefore an isolating switch is included as a
part of this CB.
• This switch opens immediately after the fault
interruption to provide necessary clearence
for insulation.

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 Cross Blast Circuit Breaker
• In this type of breaker, an air-blast is directed at right angles to
the arc.
• The cross blast lengthens and forces the arc into a suitable chute
for arc extinction.
• When the moving contact is withdrawn, an arc is struck between
the fixed and moving contacts.
• The high pressure cross-blast forces the arc into a chute
consisting of arc splitters and baffles.
• The splitters serve to increase the length of the arc and baffles
give improved cooling.
• The result is that arc is extinguished and flow of current is
interrupted.

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 • Since blast pressure is same for all currents, the inefficiency at low
currents is eliminated.
• The final gap for interruption is great enough to give normal
iusulation clearance so that a series isolating switch is not
necessary.

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Air blast circuit breaker has some specific advantages over
oil circuit breaker which are listed as follows,
• There is no chance of fire hazard caused by oil.
• The breaking speed of circuit breaker is much higher
during operation of air blast circuit breaker.
• Arc quenching is much faster during operation of air
blast circuit breaker.
• The duration of arc is same for all values of small as well
as high currents interruptions.
• As the duration of arc is smaller, so lesser amount of
heat realized from arc to current carrying contacts
hence the service life of the contacts becomes longer.
• The stability of the system can be well maintained as it
depends on the speed of operation of circuit breaker.
• Requires much less maintenance compared to oil circuit
breaker.
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There are also some disadvantages of air blast
circuit breakers-
• In order to have frequent operations, it is
necessary to have sufficiently high capacity air
compressor.
• Frequent maintenance of compressor, associated
air pipes and automatic control equipments is
also required.
• Due to high speed current interruption there is
always a chance of high rate of rise of re-striking
voltage and current chopping.
• There also a chance of air pressure leakage from
air pipes junctions.

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 OIL CIRCUIT BREAKER
• Oil has better insulating properties than air. And has also
a good cooling property.
• In a CB, when arc is formed it discomposes oil into gases.
• Inflammable and may pose a fire hazard.
• Possibility of forming explosive mixture with air and
production of carbon particles in the oil due to heating.
• Various types of oil CB:
Plain break.
Self generated pressure.
Double break.
Bulk oil
Minimum oil.

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• Oil circuit breakers have their contacts
immersed in insulating oil.
• They are used to open and close high-voltage
circuits carrying relatively large currents in
situations where air circuit breakers would be
impractical because of the danger of the
exposed arcs that might be formed.
• When the contacts are drawn apart, the oil
covering them tends to quench the arc by its
cooling effect and by the gases thereby
generated, which tend to "blow out" the arc.
• The oil circuit breakers are usually installed on
concrete foundations at the ground level.
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• During interruption of heavy fault currents the
breakers tend to move.
• To minimize the damage to the breakers, breakers
with very high interrupting capacity have an
impulse cushion is provided at the bottom of the
breakers.
• The cushion is filled with an inert gas, for example
nitrogen.
• At the instant the contacts part, the arc formed at
each contact not only displaces the oil but
decomposes it, creating gas and a carbon residue.
• If these carbon particles were to remain in place,
as a conductor they would tend to sustain the arc
formed.

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• However, the violence of the gas and the
resulting turbulence of the oil disperse these
particles and they eventually settle to the
bottom of the tank.
• The insulating oil normally used as a dielectric
strength of around 30 kV per one tenth of an
inch (compared to a similar value of 1 kV for
air). Oil is also an effective cooling medium.

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• However, the violence of the gas and the
resulting turbulence of the oil disperse these
particles and they eventually settle to the
bottom of the tank.
• The insulating oil normally used as a dielectric
strength of around 30 kV per one tenth of an
inch (compared to a similar value of 1 kV for
air). Oil is also an effective cooling medium.

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 Plain break oil

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• The following processes facilitate the arc extinction:
• The hydrogen bubble generated around the arc cools the arc
and aids de-ionisation of the medium between the contacts.
• The gas sets up turbulence in the oil and helps in eliminating
the arcing products from the arc path.
• As the arc lengthens due to the separating contacts, the
dielectric strength of the medium is increased.
Disadvantages:
• There is no special control over the arc other than increase in
length by, separating the moving contacts.
• And for successful interruption long arc length is required.
• They have long and inconsistent arcing times and they do not
permit high speed interruption.
• Due to these disadvantages its only used for low capacity
installations for low voltages not exceeding 11 kV.

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 Plain explosion
• Limitation of this type of pot is
that it cannot be used for very
low or very high fault currents.
• With low fault currents, the
pressure developed is small,
thereby increasing the arcing
time.
• And with high fault currents,
the gas is produced so rapidly
that the plot may burst due to
high pressure.
• So this pot is used on
moderate short circuit currents
only where rate of gas
evolution is moderate.

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 Cross jet explosion

•The cross jet explosion pot is used for interrupting heavy fault currents.
•For low fault current gas pressure is small and consequently the pot
does not give a satisfactory operation.
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 Self compensated

•This pot is a combination of plain explosion pot and cross jet

explosion pot.
•So it can interrupt low asG.Santhoshkumar,
9/18/2015
well as heavy short circuit currents.
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 Forced blast oil circuit breaker
• In this type of circuit breaker there is a piston
attached to a moving contact.
• When fault occurs the moving contact moves
and hence the piston associated with it also
moves producing pressure inside the oil
chamber.
• So the oil gets movement or turbulates
and quenches the arc.

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 Bulk Oil CB
• The Bulk Oil CB design is very simple.
• This type of circuit breaker uses a steel tank
containing oil and the contacts are immersed
in the oil.
• The steel tank is earthed (dead tank type).
• In this type construction the oil requirement is
more as the oil is required to provide
insulation to the contacts from the steel tank
and insulation between the contacts(in open
state).

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• The oil also serves as the medium for
extinguishing the arc formed when the moving
contact separates from fixed contact.
• When the contacts separate, arc is formed
between the contacts.
• The arc gives rise to formation of gas in the oil
which initiates oil circulation.
• This phenomena helps in extinguishing the arc so
breaking the circuit.
• For higher voltage this very simple principle
cannot be much effective.
• So an arc control device is usually used to facilitate
arc extinction process.

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 BULK OIL CIRCUIT BREAKER

 Contacts immersed
 Arc struck in oil
 Energy liberated cause
decomposing of oil and
releasing hydrogen
 Tank designed at zero
potential
Undesirables
• huge oil required
• spillage and disposal
• ever present fire hazard

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 Minimum oil Circuit Breaker
• Supporting chamber. It is a porcelain chamber mounted
on a metal chamber. It is filled with oil which is physically
separated from the oil in the circuit breaking
compartment. The oil inside the supporting chamber and
the annular space formed between the porcelain
insulation and bakelised paper is employed for insulation
purposes only.
• Circuit-breaking chamber. It is a porcelain enclosure
mounted on the top of the supporting compartment. It is
filled with oil and has the following parts :
(a) upper and lower fixed contacts
(b) moving contact
(c) turbulator
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 MINIMUM OIL CIRCUIT BREAKER

Small Oil Volume CB(SOVCB)

Oil used for quenching
Energy released by arc is for quenching
Size is small
Needs periodic cleaning
Blast of oil is perpendicular to arc
Liberation of hydrogen raises pressure causing
piston to move

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 Disadvantage of Oil Circuit Breakers
• The decomposed products of dielectric oil are inflammable and explosive.
• If the oil circuit breaker is unable to break the fault current, the pressure in
the tank may rise above safe limit and explosion may occur.
• This does not happen in SF6, ABCB, and vacuum C.B.
• The oil absorbs moisture readily.
• The dielectric strength reduces by carbonization which occur during arcing.
• The oil needs replacement after a certain breaker operations. It needs regular
maintenance.
• Oil is not a suitable medium for breakers which have to operate repeatedly.
• Breakers used for furnaces, railways, industrial loads etc., operate
frequently.
• Oil circuit breakers are unsuitable because oil gets deteriorated.
• The oil leakage, losses, replacement and purification is often troublesome.
• Hence oil circuit breakers involve more maintenance.

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 SULPHUR HEXAFLUORIDE CB
• It has good dielectric strength and excellent arc
quenching properties.
• It is an inert, non toxic, non-flammable, and
heavy gas.
• Under normal conditions,SF6 is chemically inert
and it does not attack metal or glass.
• It decomposes at temperatures of the order of
1000oC.
• Voltage range- 3.3 kV to 765kV and preferred for
132kV.
• Dielectric strength of SF6 gas increases rapidly
after final current zero.
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• In the closed position of the breaker, the contacts
remain surrounded by SF6 gas at a pressure of about 5
kg/cm2.
• When the breaker operates, the moving contact is
pulled apart and an arc is struck between the contacts.
• The movement of the moving contact is synchronized
with the opening of a valve which permits SF6 gas at
14-18 kg/cm2 pressure from the reservoir to the arc
interruption chamber.
• The high pressure flow of SF6 rapidly absorbs the free
electrons in the arc path to form immobile negative
ions which are ineffective as charge carriers.
• The result is that the medium between the contacts
quickly builds up high dielectric strength and causes
the extinction of the arc.

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 Advantages of SF6 CB
(i) Due to the superior arc quenching property of SF6, such circuit breakers
have very short arcing time.
(ii) Since the dielectric strength of SF6 gas is 2 to 3 times that of air, such
breakers can interrupt much larger currents.
(iii) The SF6 circuit breaker gives noiselss operation due to its closed gas circuit
and no exhaust to atmosphere unlike the air blast circuit breaker.
(iv) The closed gas enclosure keeps the interior dry so that there is no moisture
problem.
(v) There is no risk of fire in such breakers because SF6 gas is non-
inflammable.
(vi) There are no carbon deposits so that tracking and insulation problems are
eliminated.
(vii) The SF6 breakers have low maintenance cost, light foundation
requirements and minimum auxiliary equipment.
(viii) Since SF6 breakers are totally enclosed and sealed from atmosphere, they
are particularly suitable where explosion hazard exists e.g., coal mines.
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Disadvantages
(i) SF6 breakers are costly due to the high cost of SF6.
(ii) Since SF6 gas has to be reconditioned after every
operation of the breaker, additional equipment is
requried for this purpose.
Applications.
• A typical SF6 circuit breaker consists of interrupter units
each capable of dealing with currents upto 60 kA and
voltages in the range of 50—80 kV. A number of units are
connected in series according to the system voltage. SF6
circuit breakers have been developed for voltages 115 kV
to 230 kV, power ratings 10 MVA to 20 MVA and
interrupting time less than 3 cycles.

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 VACUUM CB
• In this breaker, vacuum is being used as the arc
quenching medium.
• Vacuum offers highest insulating strength, it
has far superior arc quenching properties than
any other medium.
• When contacts of a breaker are opened in
vacuum, the interruption occurs at first current
zero with dielectric strength between the
contacts building up at a rate thousands of
times that obtained with other circuit breakers.

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• When the breaker operates the moving
contacts separates from the fixed contacts and
an arc is struck between the contacts.
• The production of arc is due to the ionization of
metal ions and depends very much upon the
material of contacts.
• The arc is quickly extinguished because the
metallic vapours, electrons and ions produced
during arc are diffused in short time and seized
by the surfaces of moving and fixed members
and shields. .

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 Advantages Vacuum circuit breakers
(i) They are compact, reliable and have longer life.
(ii) There are no fire hazards.
(iii) There is no generation of gas during and after operation.
(iv) They can interrupt any fault current. The outstanding feature
of a VCB is that it can break any heavy fault current perfectly
just before the contacts reach the definite open position.
(v) They require little maintenance and are quiet in operation.
(vi) They can successfully withstand lightning surges.
(vii) They have low arc energy.
(viii) They have low inertia and hence require smaller power for
control mechanism.

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Applications of Vacuum circuit breakers
• For a country like India, where distances are
quite large and accessibility to remote areas
difficult, the installation of such outdoor,
maintenance free circuit breakers should
prove a definite advantage. Vacuum circuit
breakers are being employed for outdoor
applications ranging from 22 kV to 66 kV. Even
with limited rating of say 60 to 100 MVA, they
are suitable for a majority of applications in
rural areas.
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 TYPES OF CIRCUIT BREAKERS

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 SELECTION OF CIRCUIT BREAKERS

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 Circuit Breaker Ratings
A circuit breaker is required to perform the
following three duties:
• It must be capable of opening the faulty circuit
and breaking the fault current.
• It must be capable of being closed on to a fault
• Must be capable of carrying fault current for a
short time while another breaker is clearing
the fault.

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 RATING OF CIRCUIT BREAKER
• Major Duties of CB,
• To open the contacts to clear the CB,
• To close the contacts onto a fault,
• To carry fault current for a short time while another
circuit breaker is clearing fault,

• Important Ratings of CB,

• Breaking Capacity,
• Making Capacity,
• Short-time Capacity.

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 Breaking Capacity
• Types:
• Symmetrical Breaking Capacity,
• Asymmetrical Breaking Capacity,
• Symmetrical Breaking Capacity:
It is the RMS value of the ac component of the fault current that the
circuit breaker is capable of breaking under specified conditions of
recovery voltage.

• Asymmetrical Breaking Capacity:

It is the RMS value of the total current comprising of both ac and dc
components of the fault current that the circuit breaker can break under
specified conditions of recovery voltage.

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 Making Capacity
• The rated making current is defined as the
peak value of the current (including dc
component) in the first cycle at which a circuit
breaker can be closed onto a short circuit.

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 Short-time Current Rating
• The Short-time Current Rating is based on
thermal and mechanical limitations.
• The rated short-time current is the RMS value
(total current, both ac and dc components) of
the current that the circuit breaker can carry
safely for a specified short period.
• According to British standard time, 4 sec if ratio
of symmetrical breaking current to normal
current less than or equal to 40. for ratio more
than 40 it is 1 sec.
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 TESTING OF CIRCUIT BREAKER
• Types of Testing:
• Routine Test,
• Type Test.
• Short-Circuit Testing Stations:
• Field type testing station,
• Laboratory type testing station.
• Filed Test:
Power required for testing is derived from a large
power system.
• Laboratory Test:
Power required for testing is taken from specially
designed generators which are installed in the laboratory for
such testing.
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 Testing Procedure

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 Direct Testing

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 Indirect Testing
• Types:
• Unit Testing,
• Synthetic Testing.

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 Assignment
Static Relays Functional Circuits:
• Comparators
• Level Detectors
• Logic and Training Circuits

Date of Submission: 24-09-2015

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 Electrical Fuse
• In normal working condition of electrical network, the
current flows through the network is within the rated limit.
• If fault occurs in the network mainly phase to phase short
circuit fault or phase to ground fault, the network current
crosses the rated limits.
• This high current may have very high thermal effect which
will cause a permanent damage to the valuable equipments
connected in the electrical network.
• So this high fault current should be interrupted as fast as
possible. This is what an electrical fuse does.
• A fuse is a part of the circuit which consists of conductor
which melts easily and breaks the connection when current
exceeds the predetermined value.
• An electrical fuse is a weakest part of an electrical circuit
which breaks when more than predetermined current flows
through it.
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• Fuse Wire
The function of fuse wire is to carry the normal
current without excessive heating but more than
normal current when pass through fuse wire, it
rapidly heats up and melts.
• Materials used for Fuse Wires:
The materials used for fuse wires are mainly tin,
lead, zinc, silver, antimony, copper, aluminum etc.
• Current Carrying Capacity of Fuse Wire:
Current carrying capacity of a fuse wire depends
upon numbers of factors like, what material used
for it, what are the dimension of it, i.e. diameter
and length, size and shape of terminals used to
connect it, and the surrounding.
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 Fuse Wire Rating
The melting point and specific resistance of different
metals used for fuse wire

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 Some Important Terms need for Fuse
• Minimum Fusing Current : It is minimum value of
current due to which fuse melts.
• Current Rating of Fuse : It is maximum value of current
due to which fuse does not get melt.
• Fusing Factor : This is the ratio of minimum fusing
current and current rating of fuse. Therefore, fusing
factor = Minimum fusing current / current rating of
fuse. The value of fusing factor is always more than 1.
• Prospective Current in Fuse: Before melting, the fuse
element has to carry the short circuit current through
it. The prospective current is defined as the value of
current which would flow through the fuse
immediately after a short circuit occurs in the network.
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• Melting Time of Fuse or Pre-arcing Time of
Fuse: This is the time taken by an fuse wire to
be broken by melting. It is counted from the
instant, the over current starts to flow through
fuse, to the instant when fuse wire is just
broken by melting.
• Arcing Time of Fuse: After breaking of fuse
wire there will be an arcing between both
melted tips of the wire which will be
extinguished at the current zero. The time
accounted from the instant of arc initiated to
the instant of arc being extinguished is known
as arcing time of fuse.
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• Operating Time of Fuse : When ever over
rated current starts to flow through a fuse
wire, it takes a time to be melted and
disconnected, and just after that the arcing
stars between the melted tips of the fuse wire,
which is finally extinguished. The operating
time of fuse is the time gap between the
instant when the over rated current just starts
to flow through the fuse and the instant when
the arc in fuse finally extinguished. That
means operating time of fuse = melting time +
arcing time of fuse.

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 FUSE CHARCTERISTICS

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 Selection of Fuses

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Advantages
(i) It is the cheapest form of protection available.
(ii) It requires no maintenance.
(iii) Its operation is inherently completely automatic unlike a circuit breaker which
requires an elaborate equipment for automatic action.
(iv) It can break heavy short-circuit currents without noise or smoke.
(v) The smaller sizes of fuse element impose a current limiting effect under short-
circuit conditions.
(vi) The inverse time-current characteristic of a fuse makes it suitable for overcurrent
protection.
(vii) The minimum time of operation can be made much shorter than with the circuit
breakers.
Disadvantages
(i) Considerable time is lost in rewiring or replacing a fuse after operation.
(ii) On heavy short-circuits, *discrimination between fuses in series cannot be
obtained unless there is sufficient difference in the sizes of the fuses concerned.
(iii) The current-time characteristic of a fuse cannot always be co-related with that of
the protected apparatus.

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 Types of Fuse
• (i) Low voltages fuses
Semi-enclosed rewireable fuse.
High-Rupturing capacity (H.R.C.) cartridge fuse.
H.R.C. fuse with tripping device.
• (ii) High voltage fuses
Cartridge type.
Liquid type.
Metal clad fuses.

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 Semi-closed Rewirable Fuse

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 D-Type Cartridge Fuse

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 HRC Fuse

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 HRC fuse
• High rupturing capacity fuse- In that type of fuse, the fuse
wire or element can carry short circuit heavy current for a
known time period. During this time if the fault is removed,
then it does not blow off otherwise it blows off or melts.

• The enclosure of HRC fuse is either of glass or some other

chemical compound. This enclosure is fully air tight to avoid
the effect of atmosphere on the fuse materials. The
ceramic enclosure having metal end cap at both heads, to
which fusible silver wire is welded. The space within the
enclosure, surrounding the fuse wire or fuse element is
completely packed with a filling powder. This type of fuse is
reliable and has inverse time characteristic, that means if
the fault current is high then rupture time is less and if fault
current is not so high then rupture time is long.

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 Operation of HRC Fuse
When the over rated current flows through
the fuse element of high rupturing capacity
fuse the element is melted and vapourized.
The filling powder is of such a quantity that
the chemical reaction between the silver
vapour and the filling powder forms a high
electrical resistance substance which very
much help in quenching the arc.

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 Application of HRC Fuses

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