Influence of System Parameters on Fuse Protection Use in Regenerative DC Drives

Abstract: Current limiting fuses are widely used to protect the thyristors in DC drive systems. One very important problem is the choice of the correct voltage rating for fuses protecting regenerative DC drives, where many types of fault may occur, which makes fuse protection difficult. In the event of a commutation failure while regenerating, the fuses need to interrupt the loop supplied by the AC and DC voltages acting in series, which is the most difficult case for protection by fuses. In this paper a detailed study of the complete interruption process has been investigated by modeling of arcing process of the fuse protection against the regenerative circuit internal commutation fault. The effect of varying the motor time constant, supply impedance, number of fuses used to clear the fault and DC machine rating on the total transient response is studied. The model of a 200 A fuse is employed in this study. Fuses in series with both the semiconductor devices (F1) and fuses in AC lines (F2) are considered. Comparison was made between arc energy produced for fuses protecting the regenerative circuit if failure occurs, with the arc energy produced in a standard AC test in order to investigate the required voltage rating for the fuse.