Arc extinction of DC side low-voltage breaker of charging device for battery pack in power plant based on insulated-gate bipolar transistor module series technology

Abstract

The 110 V lead-acid battery pack is widely used as the DC power supply for the load control of power plants. If the low-voltage DC circuit breaker (LVDCCB) at the DC side of its charging device cannot operate in time when the fault current is flowing in charging loop, there will be of harmfulness to the safety and the durability of the battery pack. The plasma theory is applied to analyse the arc mechanism based on the voltage, the current and the power waveform of LVDCCB when it breaking. Then, an arc extinction is developed by assembling an additional device to LVDCCB. The device, connected to the contacts of LVDCCB, includes an insulated-gate bipolar transistor series branch, an energy-absorbing branch, a transfer switches branch, and a drive circuit. The test shows that the break time of LVDCCB, assembled with the additional device, is significantly shortened than that of the original.

Keywords

• lead acid batteries
• fault currents
• insulated gate bipolar transistors
• circuit breakers
• circuit-breaking arcs
• battery chargers
• power semiconductor devices
• driver circuits
• arc extinction
• DC side low-voltage breaker
• charging device
• power plant
• insulated-gate bipolar transistor module series technology
• lead-acid battery pack
• load control
• low-voltage DC circuit breaker
• LVDCCB
• fault current
• plasma theory
• arc mechanism
• drive circuit
• energy-absorbing branch
• transfer switches branch
• voltage 110.0 V