MODELLING OF MECHANICAL AND MECHATRONIC SYSTEMS 2011

The 4 International conference Faculty of Mechanical engineering, Technical university of Koice

th

DYNAMIC RESPONSE OF THE SWITCH DISCONNECTOR IN SHORT CIRCUIT CONDITIONS

elmra Ferkov1, Vladimr Ivano2, Karol Kubn3
Abstract: The paper deals with influence of short-circuit electrodynamic forces on load bearing structure of switch disconnector for switching the external medium voltage lines. Effect of the forces was studied by dynamic finite element analyses. Computational model and methodology of analyses are presented. Results of analyses represented by transient displacements and stresses in load bearing structural parts and compression forces between switching contacts are discussed. Keywords: switch-disconnector, dynamic loading, finite element analysis

1. Introduction
Switch disconnectors in electric network besides taking off the nominal current have to withstand short-circuit current in time period to circuit braking by a superior switcher without loss of serviceability. Time course of transient current depends on time point of short-circuit origination and on parameters of circuit. The most unfavorable state of the apparatus stressing occurs when the full aperiodic direct current component develops in one of outer phases.

Fig. 1 LV switch disconnector

Fig. 2 Detail of contacts

Typical assembly of high voltage switch disconnector is shown in Fig. 1. The main parts are: frame 1, fixed isolators 2, movable isolators 3, fixed contacts 4 and movable contacts 5. Rotation of isolators with movable contacts is controlled by shaft 6. Detail of contact
elmra Ferkov, doc. Ing. PhD., Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Technical University of Koice, Letn 9, 042 00 Koice, Slovak republic. E-mail: zelmira.ferkova@tuke.sk 2 Vladimr Ivano, doc. Ing. PhD., Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Koice, Letn 9, 042 00 Koice, Slovak republic. E-mail: vladimir.ivanco@tuke.sk 3 Karol Kubn, doc. Ing. PhD., Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Koice, Letn 9, 042 00 Koice, Slovak republic. E-mail: karol.kubin@tuke.sk
Modelling of Mechanical and Mechatronic systems 2011, September 20 22, 2011 Herany, Slovak Republic 76
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MODELLING OF MECHANICAL AND MECHATRONIC SYSTEMS 2011

The 4 International conference Faculty of Mechanical engineering, Technical university of Koice
th

assembly is in Fig. 2, where 1 is fixed contact, 2 is movable contact and 3 is suspended contact which is attached to movable contact by spring 4. Prestress of the spring is adjustable by bolt 5. Other parts of the switch disconnector like quenching chambers are not displayed in the figures, as they were considered in simplified form for analyses. In failure conditions are parts of electric disconnectors are mechanically loaded (besides of secondary forces like tension in line wires and weight of quenching chambers) predominantly by electrodynamic forces. Magnitude of electromagnetic force acting on a part of a conductor is determined by electric current and electromagnetic field intensity. The magnetic field acting on the element is generally caused by effect of a current transmitted by other conductors and if the conductor is not rectilinear by another parts of the same conductor. Generally, force acting on element d l of a thin conductor in atmosphere is given by vector product d F = I d l 0H (1)
where F is force vector, I is current, H is vector of magnetic field intensity and 0 is permeability of vacuum.
50 40 30 current (kA) 20 10 0 -10 -20 -30 -40 0 0,05 0,1 time (s) 0,15 0,2 0,25 phase 1 phase 2 phase 3

Fig. 3 Time course of electric current

2. Loading of switch disconnector

The disconnector parts are in failure conditions loaded by forces among conductors of individual phases, forces due to curvature of conductors, forces in contact gaps and forces from power supply cables acting on movable part of the disconnector. Time course of current in phases during three-pole cut off is described by equations

i1 = I max sin( t ) + e (1 / ) t sin ,

2 2 i2 = I max sin( t ) + e (1 / ) t sin( + ) , 3 3 2 2 i3 = I max sin( t + ) + e (1 / ) t sin( ) , 3 3

(2)

where is phase shift, is circuit time constant, I max is amplitude of circuit current and = 2 f where f is frequency. Typical courses of currents in individual phases that were used for computation of electromagnetic forces are shown in Fig. 3.
Modelling of Mechanical and Mechatronic systems 2011, September 20 22, 2011 Herany, Slovak Republic 77

MODELLING OF MECHANICAL AND MECHATRONIC SYSTEMS 2011

The 4 International conference Faculty of Mechanical engineering, Technical university of Koice
th

2.1 Forces among connectors of individual phases

In planar arrangement of three parallel infinitely long thin conductors are forces F1 , F2 , F3 acting on parts of length l of individual connectors

F10 (t ) = 2i1 i2

k k + 2i1 i3 , a 2a k k F20 (t ) = 2i1 i2 (t ) + 2i2 i3 a a k k F30 (t ) = 2i1 i3 + 2i2 i3 2a a

(3)

where k = 10 7 l and a is distance between conductors. For real conductors of finite length are equations above multiplied by correction coefficients F1 (t ) = F10 (t )k p kd , F2 (t ) = F20 (t )k p kd and F3 (t ) = F30 (t )k p kd . (4) Coefficient k p takes into account real shape of the conductors and coefficient kd reflects their arrangement. Another possibility for obtaining electromagnetic forces is finite element analysis (FEM). For illustration, distribution of vector of magnetic induction B = H for time instance when current in outer phase reaches its maximal value is shown in Fig. 3. As obvious, the computational model contains only metallic parts; isolators were omitted as their material has magnetic properties like air. Forces computed from magnetic induction obtained by FEM according to equation (1) were in good accordance with values calculated by using formulas (4).

Fig. 3 Vector of magnetic induction distribution

2.2 Forces in contact gaps and forces due to curvature of connectors For surface connection of disconnector contacts, it is recommended [1] to calculate detachment forces by empirical formula
(5) where I is current overflowing through contact substituted in kA. Value of force is then in N. Computations by finite element method do not give sufficiently correct results in this case as it is problematic to model indefinable number of small surfaces through which current
Modelling of Mechanical and Mechatronic systems 2011, September 20 22, 2011 Herany, Slovak Republic 78

F 0,5 I 2

MODELLING OF MECHANICAL AND MECHATRONIC SYSTEMS 2011

The 4 International conference Faculty of Mechanical engineering, Technical university of Koice
th

flows in reality. Reliable determination of forces in gaps is hence problematic. On the other hand, these forces are in reality automatically regulated by distribution of current between movable and suspended contacts and gap forces within contact assembly form an equilibrium system. This was a reason that gap forces were not considered in analyses. Forces due to curvature of conductors are comparatively small and were neglected in analyses

2.3 Forces from supply conductors Supply conductors fixed to contacts act on disconnector by electromagnetic forces. Magnitudes of these forces are determined by dimension and shape of supply conductors. Their effect on disconnector depends on supply conductors stiffness and system of conductor fixation. If conductors are flexible with small bending stiffness, effect of these forces is small and could be neglected.

3. Analysis of dynamic response

The role of analyses was to check deformation and stress state of the disconnector structural parts due to loading by transient electromagnetic forces during short-circuit conditions. The forces are oscillating with frequency of 50 Hz and have gradually decreasing amplitudes. As frequency of forces is comparable with eigenfrequencies of the disconnector, the use of dynamic analysis was necessary. This represents itself complication of computations by finite element method as nodal displacements have to be computed for large number of time instances during studied time interval as time increments used for computations should be sufficiently small to scan correctly structural response and/or to prevent instability of the computation process.

Fig. 4 Finite element mesh

Based on preliminary computations, Newmarks method was finally selected for simulations. The main advantage of the method was its unconditional stability that enabled a use of comparatively large time increments. According to numerical experiments, time increments of 0,001 s were found as acceptable. This is the same value as time step size used for computation of time courses of current in phase conductors (see Fig. 3) and consequent lateral forces. Computations were undertaken by simulation module of program SolidWorks. The Newmarks method in this program is integrated in module for nonlinear dynamic analyses.
Modelling of Mechanical and Mechatronic systems 2011, September 20 22, 2011 Herany, Slovak Republic 79

MODELLING OF MECHANICAL AND MECHATRONIC SYSTEMS 2011

The 4 International conference Faculty of Mechanical engineering, Technical university of Koice
th

As displacements and stresses proved to be small, both geometric and material nonlinearities could be neglected and only boundary nonlinearities represented by contact conditions were considered. In practice, this meant that the same tangent stiffness matrix was used in all time steps. Together with use of modified Newton-Raphson methods this markedly decreased

Fig. 5 Lateral forces and concentrated masses

demands on computer time. The finite element mesh consisting of 10 node tetrahedrons and 6 node triangular thick shell elements is displayed in Fig. 4. Solid elements were used for modeling of isolators, contact assembly, shaft and bearings. Shell elements were used for modeling of thin-walled structural parts like frame profiles and supports of isolators. As moving isolators can rotate around shaft axis, it was necessary to consider node-to-surface contacts among bearings and shaft. The same type of contact was considered in touching surfaces of switch contacts.
300 200 lateral force (N) 100 0 -100 -200 -300 0 0,01 0,02 0,03 0,04 0,05 time (s) 0,06 0,07 0,08 0,09 0,1 phase 1 phase 2 phase 3

Fig. 6 Time courses of lateral forces

Geometry of parts of the disconnector was simplified in order to avoid small holes and facets that are unimportant for global dynamic analysis. Stress concentration in places of omitted geometric entities proved to be unimportant as amplitudes of forces are comparatively small. This can be seen in Fig. 5 where time courses of lateral forces in time interval from 0 to 0,1 s are shown. For times larger than upper bound of this interval the oscillations of forces were practically steady. For simplification of computational model, the quenching chambers were modeled as remote masses attached to fixed contacts. Masses and moments of inertia of the chambers
Modelling of Mechanical and Mechatronic systems 2011, September 20 22, 2011 Herany, Slovak Republic 80

MODELLING OF MECHANICAL AND MECHATRONIC SYSTEMS 2011

The 4 International conference Faculty of Mechanical engineering, Technical university of Koice
th

were determined by tools included in the used CAD program. Another simplification was neglecting of friction among switching contacts.

4. Conclusions
Undertaken numerical experiments have proved that response of the disconnector structure on loading by short-circuit electromagnetic forces has to be studied by dynamic analysis. Finite element method with Newmarc direct integration was found as proper method of analyses. Amplitudes of electromagnetic forces are comparatively small, hence displacements were small and stresses in load-bearing parts were small too. Consequently, the possibilities of damage of load bearing structure of the apparatus could be excluded from consideration. Analyses showed that due to dynamic loading, forces between connected switching contacts have had oscillating character. Typical time courses of compressive force in touching area between fixed and movable contact is shown in Fig. 7. It is visible that influence of types of disconnector support arrangement on course of contact force is small. The contact forces are influenced predominantly by parameters of contact assembly as mass properties of suspended contact and stiffness and preload of the pressure spring. The described method can check whether given combinations of these parameters could cause contact detachment with consequent rise of electric arc and damage of the apparatus.
1000 statically determinate supports 800 contact force (N) statically indeterminate supports 600 400 200 0 0 0,02 0,04 0,06 time (s) 0,08 0,1 0,12

Fig. 7 Compressive force in switch contacts

Acknowledgement
Support of the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education of Slovak Republic and the Academy of Sciences under grant 1/0453/10 is greatly appreciated.

References
[1] [2] [3] BRTA, K., VOSTRACKV, Z., Very high voltage switching devices (in Czech), SNTL/ALFA, 1983 VALENTA, J., Modelling of electrodynamic forces in Modeion circuit breaker, In: Student EEICT 2003, Brno 2003, vol. 1, ISBN-80-214-2377-3, p. 95-97 ITO, S., KAWASE, Y., MORI, H., 3-D Finite Element Analysis of Repulsion Forces on Contact Systems in Low Voltage Circuit Breakers, IEEE Trans. on Magnetics, 1996, vol. MAG-32, no. 3, p.1677-1680

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MODELLING OF MECHANICAL AND MECHATRONIC SYSTEMS 2011

The 4 International conference Faculty of Mechanical engineering, Technical university of Koice
th

[4]

[5]

RONG, M., WANG, X., YANG, W., JIA, S., Theoretical and experimental analyses of the mechanical characteristics of a medium-voltage circuit breaker, IEE Proceedings - Science Measurement and Technology, 2005, vol. 152, Iss.2, ISSN: 13502344, p. 45 Electronic documentation of program SolidWorks Simulation, Dassault Systmes, 2009

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