Graduation Semester and Year

2011

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Electrical Engineering

Department

Electrical Engineering

First Advisor

Wei-Jen Lee

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the short circuit current as well as evaluate the interrupting capability of the circuit breaker with higher accuracy for industrial power plants. Power plant protection and coordination involves prevention of injury to personnel, minimizing damage to the system components, and limiting the extent and duration of service interruption whenever equipment failure, human error, or adverse natural events occur on any portion of the system. The cause for any of these circumstances is very unpredictable, but through sound system design we can reduce the levels of impact. Power plant protection is one of the most essential features during the planning, design, and operation of power plant as it ensures the safety of the personnel, reliability of electrical supply and has a profound influence on the economics of system. It is therefore essential that system protection is examined in each stage to ensure a proper protection plan that is capable of being coordinated and is flexible enough to grow with the system. The isolation of short circuits requires the application of protective equipment that will both sense the presence of abnormal current and remove the affected portion of the system. Fuses, Circuit Breakers and Relays are the main types of protective equipment that sense and remove the affected system during faults. One of the most important tasks of the system designer is to determine the interrupting capability of the protective equipment such that it is compatible with the available ratings of the circuit breaker and fuses. This study validates circuit breaker interrupting capability for industrial power plants through the short circuit analysis. As the interrupting capability allows determining the exact rating of the protective equipment, the more precise the method to determine these values allows the system design to be safer and efficient. The existing techniques of short circuit analysis would be discussed in detail and the validation procedure will be explained with the help of IEEE13 bus Industrial Distribution system.

Disciplines

Electrical and Computer Engineering | Engineering

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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