1. Actuator lever - used to manually trip and reset the circuit breaker. Also indicates the status of the circuit breaker (On or Off/tripped). Most breakers are designed so they can still trip even if the lever is held or locked in the on position. This is sometimes referred to as "free trip" or "positive trip" operation.
2. Actuator mechanism - forces the contacts together or apart.
3. Contacts - Allow current to flow when touching and break the flow of current when moved apart.
4. Terminals
5. Bimetallic strip
6. Calibration screw - allows the manufacturer to precisely adjust the trip current of the device after assembly.
7. Solenoid
8. Arc divider / extinguisher

Common trip breakers

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When supplying a branch circuit with more than one live conductor, each live conductor must be protected by a breaker pole. To ensure that all live conductors are interrupted when any pole trips, a "common trip" breaker must be used. These may either contain two or three tripping mechanisms within one case, or for small breakers, may externally tie the poles together via their operating handles. Two pole common trip breakers are common on 120/240 volt systems where 240 volt loads (including major appliances or further distribution boards) span the two out-of-phase live wires. Three pole common trip breakers are typically used to supply three phase power to large motors or further distribution boards.

Types of circuit breaker

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There are many different technologies used in circuit breakers and they do not always fall into distinct categories. The following types are common in domestic, commercial and light industrial applications for low voltage (less than 1000 V) use.

• MCB (Miniature Circuit Breaker)—rated current not more than 100 A. Trip characteristics normally not adjustable. Thermal or thermal-magnetic operation. Breakers illustrated above are in this category.
• MCCB (Moulded Case Circuit Breaker)—rated current up to 1000 A. Thermal or thermal-magnetic operation. Trip current may be adjustable.
• Air Circuit Breaker—Rated current up to 10,000 A. Trip characteristics often fully adjustable including configurable trip thresholds and delays. Usually electronically controlled—some models are microprocessor controlled. Often used for main power distribution in large industrial plant, where the breakers are arranged in draw-out enclosures for ease of maintenance.
• Vacuum Circuit Breaker—With rated current up to 3000 A, these breakers interrupt the arc in a vacuum bottle. These can also be applied at up to 35,000 V. Vacuum breakers tend to have longer life expectancies between overhaul than do air circuit breakers.

High-voltage circuit breakers

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Electrical power transmission networks are protected and controlled by high-voltage breakers. The definition of "high voltage" varies but in power transmission work is usually thought to be 72,500 V or higher, according to a recent definition by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). High-voltage breakers are nearly always solenoid-operated, with current sensing protective relays operated through current transformers. In substations the protection relay scheme can be complex, protecting equipment and busses from various types of overload or ground/earth fault.

High-voltage breakers are broadly classified by the medium used to extinguish the arc.

• Oil-filled (dead tank and live tank)
• Oil-filled, minimum oil volume
• Air blast
• Sulfur hexafluoride

High voltage breakers are routinely available up to 765 kV AC.

Live tank circuit breakers are where the enclosure that contains the breaking mechanism is at line potential, that is, "Live". Dead tank circuit breaker enclosures are at earth potential.

Interrupting principles for high-voltage circuit-breakers

High-voltage circuit-breakers have greatly changed since they were first introduced about 40 years ago, several interrupting principles have been developed that contributed successively to a large reduction of the operating energy.

Current interruption in a high-voltage circuit-breaker is obtained by separating two contacts in a medium, such as sulfur hexafluoride (SF₆), having excellent dielectrical and arc quenching properties. After contacts separation, current is carried through an arc and is interrupted when this arc is cooled by a gas blast of sufficient intensity.

Gas blast applied on the arc must be able to cool it rapidly so that gas temperature between the contacts is reduced from 20,000 K to less than 2000 K in a few hundred microseconds, so that it is able to withstand the Transient Recovery Voltage that is applied across the contacts after current interruption. Sulfur hexafluoride is generally used in present high-voltage circuit-breakers (of rated voltage higher than 52 kV).

In the 1980s and 1990s, the pressure build up necessary to blast the arc has been generated mostly by gas heating using arc energy, it has been then possible to use low energy spring operating mechanism to drive high-voltage circuit-breakers, up to 800 kV.

Brief history

The first patents on the use of SF₆ as an interrupting medium was filed in Germany in 1938 by Vitaly Grosse (AEG) and independently later in the USA in July 1951 by H.J. Lingal, T.E. Browne and A.P. Storm (Westinghouse). The first industrial application of SF₆ for current interruption dates back to 1953. High-voltage 15 kV to 161 kV load switches were developed with a breaking capacity of 600 A. The first high-voltage SF₆ circuit-breaker built in 1956 by Westinghouse, could interrupt 5 kA under 115 kV, but it had 6 interrupting chambers in series per pole. In 1957, the puffer-type technique was introduced for SF₆ circuit-breakers where the relative movement of a piston and a cylinder linked to the moving part is used to generate the pressure rise necessary to blast the arc via a nozzle made of insulating material (figure 1). In this technique, the pressure rise is obtained mainly by gas compression. The first high-voltage SF₆ circuit-breaker with a high short-circuit current capability was produced by Westinghouse in 1959. This Dead tank circuit-breaker could interrupt 41.8 kA under 138 kV (10,000 MV·A) and 37.6 kA under 230 kV (15,000 MV·A). These performances were already significant, but 3 chambers were necessary per pole and the high pressure source needed for the blast (1.35 MPa) was a constraint that had to be avoided in subsequent developments. The excellent properties of SF₆ lead to the fast extension of this technique in the 1970s and to its use for the development of circuit-breakers with high interrupting capability, up to 800 kV.

The achievement around 1983 of the first single-break 245 kV and the corresponding 420kV to 550 kV and 800kV, with respectively 2, 3, and 4 chambers per pole, lead to the dominance of SF₆ circuit breakers in the complete range of high voltages.

Several characteristics of SF₆ circuit-breakers can explain their success:

• Simplicity of the interrupting chamber which does not need an auxiliary chamber for breaking;
• Autonomy provided by the puffer technique;
• The possibility to obtain the highest performances, up to 63 kA, with a reduced number of interrupting chambers;
• Short break time of 2 to 2.5 cycles;
• High electrical endurance, allowing at least 25 years of operation without reconditioning;
• Possible compact solutions when used for GIS or hybrid switchgear;
• Integrated closing resistors or synchronised operations to reduce switching overvoltages;
• Reliability and availability;
• Low noise level.

The reduction in the number of interrupting chambers per pole has led to a considerable simplification of circuit-breakers as the number of parts was decreased as well as the number of seals. As a direct consequence, the reliability of circuit-breakers was improved, as verified later on by CIGRE surveys.

Thermal blast chambers

The last ten years have seen the development of the self-blast technique of interruption for SF₆ interrupting chambers. This technique has proved to be very efficient and has been widely applied for high voltage circuit breakers up to 550 kV. It has allowed the development of new ranges of circuit breakers operated by low energy spring-operated mechanisms. These developments have been facilitated by the progress made in digital simulations that were widely used to optimize the geometry of the interrupting chamber and the linkage between the poles and the mechanism. New types of SF₆ breaking chambers, which implement innovative interrupting principles, have been developed over the course of the past 15 years, with the objective of reducing the operating energy of the circuit-breaker. One aim of this evolution was to further increase the reliability by reducing the dynamic forces in the pole and its mechanism.

The reduction of operating energy was mainly achieved by the lowering energy used for gas compression and by making increased use of arc energy to produce the pressure necessary to quench the arc and obtain current interruption. Low current interruption, up to about 30% of rated short-circuit current, is obtained by a puffer blast.

Self blast chambers

Further development in the thermal blast technique was made by introducing a valve between the expansion volume and the compression volume. When interrupting low currents the valve opens under the effect of the overpressure generated in the compression volume. The blow-out of the arc is made as in a puffer circuit breaker thanks to the compression of the gas obtained by the piston action. In the case of high currents interruption, the arc energy produces a high overpressure in the expansion volume, which leads to the closure of the valve and thus isolating the expansion volume from the compression volume. The overpressure necessary for breaking is obtained by the optimal use of the thermal effect and of the nozzle clogging effect produced whenever the cross-section of the arc significantly reduces the exhaust of gas in the nozzle. In order to avoid excessive energy consumption by gas compression, a valve is fitted on the piston in order to limit the overpressure in the compression to a value necessary for the interruption of low short circuit currents.

This technique, known as “self blast” has now been used extensively for more than 10 years for the development of many types of interrupting chambers. The better knowledge of arc interruption obtained by digital simulations and validation of performances by breaking tests, contribute to a higher reliability of these self blast circuit-breakers. In addition the reduction in operating energy, allowed by the self blast technique, leads to a higher mechanical endurance.

Double motion of contacts

An important decrease in operating energy can also be obtained by reducing the kinetic energy consumed during the tripping operation. One of the possible means consists in displacing the two arcing contacts in opposite directions so that, for each of them, the speed is half what would be necessary in a conventional layout with a single mobile contact.

The thermal and self blast principles has enabled the use of low energy spring mechanisms for the operation of high voltage circuit breakers, they progressively replaced the puffer technique since the 1980s, first of all in 72.5 kV, then from 145 kV to 800 kV.

Comparison of single motion and double motion techniques

The double motion technique allows to divide by two the tripping speed of the moving part. In principle the kinetic energy could then be divided by four if the total moving mass was not increased. However, as the total moving mass is increased the practical reduction in kinetic energy is closer to 60%. The total tripping energy further includes the compression energy, which is almost the same for both techniques. Thus, the reduction of the total tripping energy is lower, namely approximately 30%, although the exact value depends on the application considered and in particular on the operating mechanism. Depending on the specific case, the double motion technique or single motion one is more economical. Of course, other considerations have to be taken into account, for example rationalization of the circuit-breaker range.

Thermal blast chamber with arc-assisted opening

In this interruption principle arc energy is used, on the one hand to generate the blast by thermal expansion and, on the other hand, to accelerate the moving part of the circuit breaker when interrupting high currents. The overpressure produced by the arc energy downstream of the interruption zone is applied on an auxiliary piston linked with the moving part. The resulting force accelerates the moving part, thus increasing the energy available for tripping.

With this interrupting principle it is possible, during high-current interruptions, to increase by about 30% the tripping energy delivered by the operating mechanism and to maintain the opening speed independently of the current. It is obviously better suited to circuit-breakers with high breaking currents such as Generator circuit-breakers.

Generator circuit-breakers

Generator circuit-breakers are connected between a generator and the step-up voltage transformer. They are generally used at the outlet of high power generators (100 MV·A to 1800 MV·A) in order to protect them in a sure, quick and economic manner. Such circuit breakers must be able to allow the passage of high permanent currents under continuous service (6,300 A to 40,000 A), and have a high breaking capacity (63 kA to 275 kA). They belong to the medium voltage range, but the TRV withstand capability required by ANSI/IEEE Standard C37.013 is such that the interrupting principles developed for high-voltage range must be used . A particular embodiment of the thermal blast technique has been developed and applied to generator circuit-breakers:

The self blast technique, as described above, is also widely used for SF₆ Generator circuit breakers operated by low energy spring-operated mechanism,as illustrated by the figure below showing a 17.5 kV 63 kA circuit breaker.

Evolution of tripping energy

The operating energy has been reduced by 5 to 7 times during this period of 27 years. This illustrates well the great progress made in this field of interrupting techniques for high-voltage circuit-breakers.

Future perspectives

In the near future, present interrupting technologies can be applied to circuit-breakers with the higher rated breaking currents (63 kA to 80 kA) required in some networks with increasing power generation.

Self blast or thermal blast circuit breakers are nowadays accepted world wide and they are in service for high voltage applications since about 15 years, starting with the voltage level of 72.5 kV. Today this technique is also available for the voltage levels 420/550/800 kV.

Other breakers

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The following types are described in separate articles.

• Breakers for protections against earth faults too small to trip an overcurrent device:
  • RCD—Residual Current Device (formerly known as a Residual Current Circuit Breaker) - detects current imbalance. Does NOT provide overcurrent protection.
  • RCBO—Residual Current Breaker with Overcurrent protection - combines the functions of an RCD and an MCB in one package. In the United States and Canada, panel-mounted devices that combine ground(earth) fault detection and overcurrent protection are called Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter (GFCI) breakers; a wall mounted outlet device providing ground fault detection only is called a GFI.
  • ELCB—Earth leakage circuit breaker. This detected earth current directly rather than detecting imbalance. They are no longer seen in new installations for various reasons.

• Autorecloser A type of circuit breaker which closes again after a delay. These are used on overhead power distribution systems, to prevent short duration faults from causing sustained outages.

• Polyswitch (polyfuse) A small device commonly described as an automatically-resetting fuse rather than a circuit breaker.

External links

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• L. W. Brittian: Electrical Circuit Breakers
• http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/electric/bregnd.html
• coordination between circuit breakers

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