Magnetic Sensor Array for Electric Arc Reconstruction in Circuit Breakers

Area of Science:

• Electrical Engineering
• Electromagnetics
• Noninvasive Diagnostics

Background:

• Circuit breakers are critical for electrical safety.
• Understanding internal dynamics during short-circuit events is essential for reliability.
• Current methods for analyzing circuit breaker performance can be invasive or limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop noninvasive methods for imaging circuit breaker behavior during short-circuit testing.
• To accurately determine current distribution and electric arc dynamics.
• To provide flexible analysis tools for diverse circuit breaker designs.

Main Methods:

• Recording external magnetic fields using sensor arrays.
• Solving inverse problems to reconstruct current distribution.
• Employing a wire model for electrical current representation.
• Developing approximating models for electric arc dynamics.

Main Results:

• Successful implementation of a sensing chain with studied temporal and spatial resolution.
• Validation of the wire model and proposed direct current evaluation approach.
• Obtained electric arc dynamics that align with multi-physical simulations and experimental data.
• Demonstrated flexibility of the methods for analyzing different circuit breaker types.

Conclusions:

• Noninvasive magnetic field analysis is a viable technique for studying circuit breakers.
• The developed methods provide accurate insights into current distribution and arc dynamics.
• These techniques offer a flexible and effective approach for circuit breaker performance evaluation.