Optimization Design of a High-Coupling Split Reactor in a Parallel-Type Circuit Breaker

Abstract

In this paper, in accordance with the breaker requirements of a parallel-type circuit breaker based on a high-coupling split reactor, the structure of a coupling reactor is proposed, and the influences of the inner radius, encapsulation height, air ducts width, and encapsulation number of the reactor on coupling factor is analyzed. The reactor design is optimized to minimize metal conductor usage, and the initial design parameters of the coupling reactor are selected based on equal height and heat flux of the coaxial encapsulations. Meanwhile, combined thermal and electromagnetic optimization method and heat load optimization are adopted considering a single-arm limiting current and two-arm flow current working conditions. The optimization results show that the metal conductor usage of the coupling reactor is only 63% compared to a design based on the initial design parameters, and the correctness of the optimization is verified by simulation results.

Keywords

• Parallel-type circuit breaker
• coupling reactor
• metal conductor usage
• combined thermal and electromagnetic optimization
• heat load optimization