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VACUUM CIRCUIT BREAKERS FOR A.C. TRACTION VEHICLES

D. Vernon

GEC Traction Limited

, UK

INTRODUCTION GEC Traction has now been involved with the design and manufacture of vehicle mounted vacuum circuit breakers (VCBs) for nearly twenty years. Situated on the roof near to the pantograph, this primary circuit breaker provides the locomotive or multiple-unit with protection against fault currents. It also isolates the vehicle whilst passing through earthed section gaps in the overhead catenary wire. This latter function accounts for the great majority of switching operations, there being, typically, one section gap every twenty kilometres on an inter-city 25kV system. The paper describes aspects of the latest VCB design, together with details of performance tests and the developments of a suitable high-strength polymeric insulator. Brief History The first two VCBs were fitted to BR Class 85 locomotives in 1971 for a two year trial period. The trials were successful and led BR to fit all their subsequent a.c. stock with the type 20CB twin-interrupter VCB. However, a larger volume of sales has gone overseas bringing the total now supplied to over 1500 units. VCBs are operating on 50kV; 25kV; 15kV;, 16.667 Hz and 12kV; 25 Hz systems and countries where they see service' include USA, Mexico, Australia] New Zealand and India. This latter country uses VCBs manufactured by GEC India. The principal advantages which make the VCR popular may be summarised as follows: (1) Reduced maintenance costs: When compared with the air-blast circuit breaker, the VCB has few wearing ;)arts and interrupter life even under the most arduous service conditions is extensive. Thus frequent overhaul off the vehicle and replacement of expensive components is not necessary. (ii) High interrupting performance: The sirlgle interrupter VCB is fully compliant with a short-circuit rating of 12kA at 27.5kV. Also since the interrupting medium is self-contained, contact wear is minimal, there is no dependance on a high quality pressurised air supply to ensure successful switching and there is no smoke or flame to vent.

(iii)&ompactness of design: The VCR's under-roof space requirements are minimal which allows it to be mounted on passenger rolling stock where headroom has to be maintained. Also, under these conditions, its inherent quietness of operation can be considered an advantage. The Type 20CB Design Figure (1) shows the type 20CB VCB. Two interrupters are used in series in this VCB and each are mounted in the horizontal weatherproof insulators. A pneumatic operating mechanism is mounted in the cradle between the interrupters and directly above the main support insulator. The supply air comes from the vehicles main system and is regulated to 482 kN/mZ. Also, a control governor monitors air pressure within the VCB and provides the basis of a fail-safe mechanism so that in the event of a fall in pressure, the contacts automatically open. Heavy duty springs ensure the contacts are held open and so dispense with the need for an isolating arm. Auxiliary contacts are mounted in the baseplate but are operated by the main contacts and can be used for proving the state of the VCB. This robust design has operated reliably with minimal maintenance for many years. For example, on BRB high-density inner-suburban stock, switching operations can approach 25,000 per year and after over ten years in service, many VCBs are still operating with the original interrupters fitted. THE VACUUM INTERRUPTER A brief description of the construction and principle of operation of the modern vacuum interrupter is given here.(l) Two contacts, one fixed and one moving are housed in an evacuated glass-ceramic chamber. The moving contact is connected to the interrupter endplate via bellows and so can move axially but since atmospheric pressure continually acts upon the bellows, the contacts are biased to the closed position. Surrounding the contacts and suspended from the body of the interrupter is a tubular metal sputter shield which ensures that metal vapour from "arcing" does not condense on insulating surfaces. The interruption of large currents in vacuum depends on the conditions prevailing in the interrupter at current zero. If contact areas are too hot, material will be emitted into the contact gap preventing the dielectric from recovering quickly enough to withstand the build-up of recovery voltage and this will result in fzilure to interrupt. Unless action is

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taken, this sequence of events will occur when currents exceed lOkA and the mode of arcing takes the form of a constricted column which creates large local power densities that are capable of melting the contact surfaces. The arc must either be prevented from constricting or be made to move around the contact surfaces, dissipating energy and hence preventing hot spots. GEC interrupters use a variation of the second technique which "motors" the arc by means of self-induced magnetic fields. This is achieved by making the contacts cup-shaped and slotting the walls of each cup in helical fashion. Thus a rotating magnetic field is generated which takes the arc with it around the rim of the contacts. By this means, short circuit currents of up to 8 5 kA peak have been interrupted. Below lOkA, overheating is not a problem because the metal vapour appears as a "diffuse" arc which spreads its energy evenly over the contact surfaces cnd so prevents hot-spots from forming. Finally, the contact tip material must be selected with care since it is this material which provides the metal vapour for the arc and so determines its nature. This includes arc voltage, voltage withstand capability and current chopping characteristics as well as contact resistance and contact wear. Copper-chromium materials are used by GEC whereas overseas, most manufacturers use copper-bismuth which trades a lower contnct resistance for hiqher levels of current chopping. Durinq the early days of VCBs in service, there was criticism that overvoltages were being generated that were greater than those experienced with other forms of switchgear. To allay these fear a programme of tests was carried out on service vehicles and in collaboration with BRB. The results confirmed theoretical expectations that the highest surge voltages occur when all the main transformer secondary windings are open circuit. However, this is an academic condition since a transformer will always have surge suppression circuits connected and auxiliaries can provide further continuous loads. Under these conditions, the highest voltage recorded when "making" was 55kV and when "breakin;" 45kV with minima!. load and 36kV with substantial traction load. With power frequency peak voltage of 36kV, these results can be seen as moderate and satisfactory. (2) TYPE 22CB DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS The controlling feature of a VCB must be the vacuum interrupter! Hitherto, a minimum of two (the 50kV VCB uses four in series) have been required in order to achieve the appropriate lightning impulse voltage withstand level of 175kV peak although two interrupters in series do not substantially increase a VCB's fault rupturing ability. However, advances made in the vacuum interrupter sputter shield design produced an interrupter which could achieve the required impulse voltage level across one gap.

An added bonus was that parallel development was to produce a contact design that could give a single interrupter VCB a greater fault rupturing capacity than the twin-interrupter design. Now that a single interrupter VCB was feasible, the opportunity was taken to evaluate the existing design and make improvements if appropriate. Work concentrated in the following areas:(i) Interchangeability with the type 20CB. (ii) High speed operation. Power, semi-conductors can now become more compact since smaller safety margins are necessary. (iii)A more simple operating mechanism. With a contact gap of only 6mm, long life and high reliability can be maintained. Maintenance is reduced to a minimum and this is reflected in life cycle costs. (iv) Increased accessibility. Inspections may now be carried out either from within the vehicle or from on the vehicle roof. This allows the VCB to be mounted in a more convenient position than perhaps afforded by the location of a passageway. (v) Improved operating characteristics. At the instant contacts touch, small springs provide a contact force that increases as the cylinder pressure stabilises. Bounce is minimised and sc high fault currents can be controlled. (vi) The elimination of air dryers. operating air is no longer at high voltage end. Type 22CB Design Figure 2 shows the type 22CB VCB. The single interrupter is now mounted vertically above the support insulator. In order to maintain adequate, surface creepage when only one interrupter is used at 25kV, the interspace between the top insulator and the interrupter is filled crith an RTV elastomer. The opening mechanism is mounted on the end face of the interrupter but the piston assembly is now located in the baseplate and it drives the main conkacts through an insulated push-rod. As with the type 20CB, auxiliary contacts are available for proving circuits but now control circuits connections to the VCB are made with a plug and socket arrangement. The Test Programme Whilst advances in vacuum interrupter technology has given the development programme its impetus, it has also been important to develop all aspects of the VCB so that it will perform satisfactorily at the extremes of known service conditions. The the

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Thus 8. continual process of evaluation testing has been carried out during development which has eventually culminated in type test certification on a production unit. Some of the tests undertaken are described below:The VCB can (i) Temperature Rise Test be used on vehicles where system voltages are lower than 25kV- and hence RMS currents are high. By connecting thermocouples to all conducting components within the VCB and then connecting the VCB to a low-voltage variable current supply, a thermal rating of 1000 Amps was established. (ii) Short-circuit Tests The VCB was originally designed to satisfy the generally specified rating of lOkA at 25kV. However, more recent developments have made it appropriate that the VCB should be compliant with the european standard of 12kA at 27.5kV although this represents an increase in performance of over 30%. All testing was csrried cut in accordance with ;tC 56 which requires a sequence of close-open operations to be performed at l o % , 308, 60% and 100% of the full short-circuit current. Also at 100% (12kA), a circuit with a 50% d . ~ . component is switched on both the major and minor current loops in turn. Figure 3 is an oscillogram of such a duty where trace A shows that 32.7kV is the voltage applied by the test station. Trace B is the asymmetric current flowing through the VCB on test and here contact separation, CS, occurs just before a zero. Thus a full loop of arcing, 14ms, occurs prior to extinction. Trace C, the voltage across the VCB, shows the attempted interruption of the first current zero. Keasuring the transient recovery voltage (T.R.V.) parameters gives a rate of rise of voltage across the opening contacts of 0.65kV/bS. Testing revealed that successful current interruption required a higher contact velocity at contact separation than hitherto and in order to achieve speeds in excess of 1 m/s a servo valve was developed that gave the necessary control over the air flow. Test work is now continuing to finalise a short circuit rating of 20kA at 15kV; 16.667Hz and also to establish performance limits at 12kV; 25Hz. Problems due to long arcing times at these lower frequencies are minimised by the low arcing voltage of the interrupter.

(iii)Kigh Voltage Tests These tests, conducted at the GEC Engineering Research Centre, Stafford, were in accordance with BS 923 and IEC 60. Testing established the VCB's ability to withstand both a 1.2/50ms stylised lightning impulse wave of 175kVp and at power frequency, 75kV rms with the VCB dry and wetted by artificial rain. (iv) Environment Tests To ensure reliability in extreme climatic conditions, long term operational test have been conducted from -5OOC to +7OoC. THE POLYKERIC INSULATOR It became clear at an early stage in the VCB development programme that further advantages could accrue if the weatherproof porcelain insulators could be replaced by polymeric insulation. Porcelain housings are relative cheap, simple components with reliable electrical properties but they do suffer from being heavy and having poor impact strength and both of these factors are relevant to vehicle mounted equipment. Using modern plastic materials, an insulator would be :compact (i) Lightweight, more have a surface creepage suFerior to comparable designs. and yet distance porcelain

The design can (ii) Vandal resistant. resist flying debris even at speeds of 225km/h. (iii Dimensionally very accurate. Thus unlike porcelain no expensive production jigs are necessary to locate the support flanges prior to cementing.
- ator Development Insu

These advantages justified the introduction of a development programme to run in parallel with the other VCB work so that a prototype polymeric insulator could be fully evaluated. Thus a vacuum interrupter was encapsulated incide a glass fibre tube and track resistant silicone rubber sheds were individually bonded to its outer diameter. The tube was epoxy resin impregnated glass cloth, wound cylindrically and press moulded into shape to provide strength in both the hoop and axial directions. The sheds were heavily filled RTV silicone elastomer and each were carefully located on the tube and to each other with an adhesive. The tubes internal surfaces were also covered with another RTV elastomer to prevent tracking in the event of condensation. The new insulators were incorporated into a VCB which was then subjected to a series of vibration, high voltage and surface pollution tests. The results were sufficiently encouraging to allow progress to a trial production stage, as shown in figure 4 .

Now, the tube was filament wound with "E" glass c n l d bonded with epoxy resin. A heat-curing silicone elastomer, loaded with aluminium hydroxide was then compression moulded on to the tube and this ensured a homogeneous bond between the two without the need for a separate adhesive. The elastomer chosen has been fully evaluated with bond strength tests to glass fibre substrates and a 1000 hour salt fog test. This latter test demonstrated the good water repellent characteristics of the maherial which minimise the build up of conducting paths which could otherwise lead to surface tracking and eventually flashover. The impact strength of the material has already been exploited by British Rail who use it for the manufacture of shed protectors for porcelain insulators. ( 3 ) To achieve the required re-entrant shed profile of a complete insulator involves a complicated moulding technique and it is interesting to note that to process 6kg of material requires a mould of 1.25 tonnes and pressure of 14KN/mZ. TYPE 22CB SERVICE TRIALS Although the VCB development and test programme has been comprehensive, a successful trial period in service is still deemed essential. Thus for some time prior to production, VCBs with both porcelain and polymeric insulators were pui: into service at home and overseas. These VCBs remain in service and indeed in one instance the anti-vandal properties of a polymeric insulator have been tested. Damage incurred to the roof equipment of a British Rail locomotive in Scotland meant total replacement of all components except the VCB. It survived almost unmarked and is still operating on that loco.

CONCSUSIOX With the company at the beginning of a new era that will take it into Europe, it is considered that the new generation of type 22CB vacuum circuit breakers are appropriate; cost effective and offer reliable primary protection for all types of traction vehicles. Indeed, contractual requirements already exceed 200. The additional choice of weatherproof insulation now gives the operator the option of even further reducing maintenance and overhaul costs whilst the polymeric insulator itself is being promoted for other roof mounted applications. These include pantograph support insulators, roof bushings and explosion-proof surge arrestors. REFERENCES
1.

Jarvis, E. A. K. and Vernon, D., Rly. Engineering International. 10. - 19 - 21. Falkingham, L. T., advances in Vac. Cigre, Paris. 1986. Int.

1981.

2.

" Recent Design."

3.

Wheeler, J. C. G., 1984. "Antivandal shed protection for solid core insulation on British Rail." Proc. DXNA Conf.

Figure 1.

The type 20CB twin-interrupter VCB .

Ficjure 2.

The type 22CB single interrupter VCB.

TRACE A :Vapp. = 32

.7k V.

TRACE B'.Vsymm. = 1 2 . 6 k A. Vasymm. = 1 6 . 1 k A . D.C. = 55 . 9 O h

A

Figure 2.

Type 22CB VCB with polymeric insulation.