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3

TRANSIENT RECOVERY VOLTAGE


3.0 lntroduction
At the beginning of Chapter 2 it was stated that all current interrupting devices
must deal with current and voltage transients. Among the current transients, of
special interest, are those, which are the direct result of sudden changes in
the load impedance, such as in the case of a short circuit. Current transients
produced by a short circuit are dependent upon events that are part of the
system and therefore they are considered as being transients that are induced
by the system. The voltage transients, in the other hand, are the result of
either the initiation, or the interruption of current flow. The switching device
itself initiates these transients, and therefore they can be considered as being
transients that are equipment induced. However, the characteristics of these
transients do not depend on the type of equipment, but rather, they depend
upon the parameters, and the specific location of each of the components of
the circuit.
What follows is an introduction to this all-important s u b j e c t dealing with
Voltage transients. Knowledge about the nature and the characteristics of
transient voltages is an essential necessity for all those involved in the design,
the application, and the testing of interrupting devices. Transient voltage
conditions, especially those occurring following current interruption, must be
properly evaluated before selecting an interrupting device, whether it is a
circuit breaker, an automatic reclose, a fuse, a load breaking switch, or in
general any kind of fault interrupting or load breaking equipment.
Whenever any of the just mentioned devices is applied, it is not sufficient
to consider, and to specify only the most common system parameters such as
available fault current, fault impedance ratio (X/R). Load current level, system
operating voltage, and dielectric withstand levels, but it is imperative that the
requirements imposed by the transient voltage be truly understood and properly
acknowledged to insure correct application of the selected switching device.
Voltage transients, as stated earlier, generally occur whenever a circuit is
being energized, or de-energized. In either case these transients can be quite
deranging specially to transfoners, reactors and rotating machinery that may
be connected to the circuit The transients occurring during clearing of a
faulted circuit and which are referred here as, Transient Recovery Voltages
(TRV), will be the first to be considered. Ina later chapter other types of volt
age transients such as those produced by switching surges, current chopping,
restrikes and prestrikes will be covered.
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Chapter 3

TRV

CB

/ / /// //
Figure 3.1 Grnphical representation of an Electric Network illustrating the sources
of the Transient Recovery Voltage.

3.1 Transient Recovery Voltage: General Considerations


All types of circuit interrupting devices can be considered as being a link
that is joining two electrical networks. On one side of the device there is the
electrical network that is delivering power and which can be identified as
the source side network. 1n the other side there is an electrical network that
is consuming power and consequently it can be identified as the load side
network, as is illustrated in figure 3.1
Whenever the interrupting device is opened, the two networks are
disconnected and each of the networks proceeds to redistribute its trapped
energy. As a result of this energy redistribution, each network will develop a
voltage that appears simultaneously at the respective terminals of the
interrupter. The algebraic sum of these two voltages then represents the
Transient Recovery Voltage, which normally is simply referred as TRV.
A comprehensive evaluation of the recovery voltage phenomena that takes
place in any electrical system should be based upon the conditions prevailing
at the moment of the interruption of a short circuit current. As minimum
requirements to be taken into consideration for this evaluation are the type
of the fault, the characteristics of the network connections, and the switching
arrangement used.

Transient Recovery Voltage

79

Depending upon the different combinations of these conditions, it is


obvious that the transient recovery voltage can have many different
characteristics; it can exhibit a single frequency, or a multi-frequency response.
It can be expressed in the form of a sinusoidal function, a hyperbolic function,
a triangular function, an exponential function, or as a combination of these
functions; it all depends as it has been said, upon the particular combination of
the many factors which directly influence the characteristics of the TRV.
If all factors are taken into consideration exact calculations of the TRV in
complex systems is rather complicated. and generally these calculations are
best made with the aid of a digital computer program, such as the widely used
Electro-Magnetic Transients Program or EMTP.
For those applications where a somewhat less accurate result will suffice,
E. Boehne [1], A. Greenwood [2] and P. Hammarlund [3], among others,
have shown that it is possible to simplify the calculations by reducing the
original system circuits to an equivalent circuit which has a simple
mathematical solution. Nevertheless when these simplified calculation
method is employed the problem of how to properly select the equivalent
circuits and the values of the constants to be used in the calculations still
remains.
The selections are only practical equivalents containing lumped
components that approximately describe the way in which the actual
distributed capacitances and inductances are interrelated in the particular
system under consideration. Furthermore the calculation procedures still are
somewhat tedious; which again points out the fact that, even for moderately
complex systems, it is advantageous to use the modem computer aided methods
of calculation.
However, there is something to be said about simple methods for
approximated calculations of TRV, and at the risk of oversimplifying the
problem, it is possible to say that in the majority of the cases a first hand
approximation of the TRV is generally a1J that is needed for the proper initial
selection, and for judging the adequacy of prospective applications of circuit
breakers. For some particular cases, it is possible to consider just the most
basic conditions found in the most common applications. In most cases, these
are the conditions that have been used as the basis for establishing standards
that define the minimum capability requirements of circuit breakers.
A simplified calculation approach can also be of help in determining if the
rated TRV of a circuit breaker is sufficient for the application at hand and in
many cases the results obtained, with such simplified calculation, can be used
to determine if there is a need for further more accurate calculations. Another
possible application of the simplified calculation approach is that it can be
used to evaluate possible corrective actions that may be taken to match the
capability of the device with the characteristics of the circuit. One corrective
action is the addition of surge capacitors to modify the inherent TRV of a
system.

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Chapter 3

3.1.1 Basic Assumptions for TRV Calculations


The following assumptions are generally made when calculating the transient
recovery voltage of a transmission, or a distribution high voltage power system.
1.

2.

3.
4.

5.

Only three phase, symmetrical, ungrounded terminal faults, need to be


considered , this is because the most severe TRV appears across the first
pole that clears an ungrounded three phase fault occurring at the terminals
of the circuit breaker.
The fault is assumed to be fed through a transformer, which in tum is
being fed by an infinite source. This implies that a fault at the load
side terminals of a circuit breaker allows the full rated short circuit
current to flow through the circuit breaker.
The current flowing in the circuit is a totally reactive symmetrical current;
which means that at the instant when the current reaches its zero, the sys
tem voltage will be at its peak.
The voltage across the circuit breaker contacts, as the current approaches
zero, is equal to the are voltage of the device and it is assumed to be
negligible during the TRV calculation, since they are voltage, when
dealing with high voltage circuit breakers, represents only a small fraction
of the system voltage . However this may not be the case for low voltage
circuit breakers where the are voltage, in many instances, represents a
significant percentage of the system voltage.
The recovery voltage rate represent the inherent TRV of the circuit, and it
does not include any of the effects that the circuit breaker itself may have
upon the recovery voltage.

3.1.2 Current injection Technique


A convenient contrivance employed for the calculation of the TRV is the
introduction of the current injection technique. What this entitles is the
assumption that a current equal and opposite to the short circuit current, which
would have continued to flow in the event that interruption had not occurred,
is flowing at the precise instant of the current zero where the interruption of
the short circuit current takes place. Since the currents, at any time, are equal
and opposite, it is rather obvious that the resultant value of the sum of these
two currents is zero. Consequently, the most basic condition required for
current interruption is not being violated.
Furthermore, it is possible to assume that the recovery voltage exists only
as a consequence of this current, which is acting upon the impedance of the
system when viewed from the terminals of the circuit breaker.
Additionally, since the frequency of the TRV wave is much higher than
that of the power frequency, it is possible to assume, without introducing any

Transient Recovery JVo/tage


L

81
L

Figure 3.2 Schematic representation of the elements of a Transmission Line.


Significant error, that the injected current (i) can be represented by a linear
current ramp is defined by:

i = .f'i. x f,ms. x ro x t
Where:

Inris = rms value of the short circuit current


ro= 27tf = 377'

t == time in seconds
As it will be seen later this concept will be used extensively for the
calculation of Transient Recovery Voltages.
3.1.3 Traveling Waves and the Lattice Diagram

To better understand some of the important characteristics related to the


transient voltage phenomena taking place during the execution of switching
operations involving high voltage equipment, it would be beneficial to have at
least a basic knowledge about the physical nature and behavior of traveling
waves that are present on the transmission lines during these times.
One important characteristic of transmission lines is that since their
resistance is generally neglected, they can be represented as being made up
of a combination of distributed inductive and capacitive elements. The
inductive elements are all connected in series, and the capacitive elements are
distributed

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Chapter 3

along the line in parallel as is shown in figure 3.2. When an electrical system
is visualized in this fashion, it can be seen that if a voltage is applied to the
end of the line, the first capacitor will be charged immediately, and the
charging of the capacitors located downstream from the point where the
voltage was initially applied will be sequentially delayed as a consequence
of the inductors, that are connected in series between the capacitors. The
observed delay will be proportionally longer at each point down the line.
If the applied voltage is in the form of a surge signal that starts at zero
and that returns to zero in a short time, then it is reasonable to expect that
the voltage across the capacitors will reach a maximum value before
returning to zero. As this pattem is repeated, at each capacitor junction
point along the line, it can easily be visualized that the process serves as a
vehicle to propagate the applied surge in the form of a wave which moves
along the line. During the propagation of the wave, the original
characteristics of the surge signal remain basically unchanged in terms of
their amplitude and waveform.
Since, in order to charge the capacitors, at each connection point along the
line, a current must flow through the inductances that are connecting the
capacitors; then, at any point along the line, the instantaneous value of the
voltage e(t) will be related to the instantaneous value of the current i(t) by the
following relationship :

e(t) = Zi(t)
Where the constant of proportionality Z represents the surge impedance
of the line, which is given by:

In the above relationship, L and C are the inductance and the


capacitance, per unit length, of the line. The numerical value of the surge
impedance Z is a constant in the range of 300 to 500 ohms. A value of 450
ohms is usually assumed for single overhead transmission conductors and
360 ohms for bundled conductors.
Dimensional ly, the surge impedance is given in ohms, and is in the
nature of a pure resistance; however, it is important to realize that the surge
impedance, although it is resistive in nature, it can not dissipate energy as a
normal resistive element can. It is also important to note that the surge
impedance of a line is independent of the length of such line, this is so
because any point located at any distant pan of a circuit can not know that a
voltage has been applied somewhere in the line until a traveling wave
reaches that point.

Transient Recovery Vo/tage

83

Traveling waves, as is the case with any other electromagnetic


disturbance in air, will propagate at the speed of light that is 300 meters per
microsecond, or approximately 1000 feet per microsecond. As the wave
passes from a line that has an impedance equal to Z1 into another circuit
element, possibly but not necessarily another line, which has an impedance
equal to Z2, new waves will
propagat e from the junction point , traveling back into z1, and through the
junction into z2, The new waves are shaped identically as the incident wave,
but their amplitude and possibly their signs are changed.
The coefficients used to obtain the new voltage waves
are: Reflection (from

Refraction (from Z1 into

back into Z1):

):

lf the line termination is a short circuit, then Z2 = O and the above


equation becomes:

For a reflected wave:

KRS = -1

For a refracted wave:

KTS = O

lf the line end is an open circuit, then z2

= infinito: and the

expressions are: For a reflected wave:

KRo = + l

For a refracted wave:

Kro =+2

The back and forward moving waves will pass each other undisturbed along
the line, and the potential at any point along such line is obtained by adding
the potentials of all the waves passing through the point in either direction.
With the aid of a lattice diagram. figure 3.3, it is possible to keep track of
all waves passing through a given point al a given moment. A lattice
diagram, can be constructed by drawing a horizontal line from "a" to "b"
which

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Chapter 3

"a"

"b"
INCIDENT WAVE

2T

3T

2nd.

4T

Figure 3.3Typical construction of a Lattice Diagram.


represents, without any scale, the length of the transmission line. Elapsed
time is represented in a vertical coordinate that is drawn downwards from the
abscissa, this time is given by the parameter T which symbolizes the time
required by the wave to travel from one end of the line to the other end. The
progress of the incident wave and of its multiple reflections is then tracked as
shown with their corresponding labels by the zigi.ag lines in figure 3.3.
The next step is to determine the relative amplitudes of the successive
reflections. it can be seen that an incident wave, whether it is a current or
a voltage wave, which is entering point "a" from the left is a function of
time f(t) and it progresses undisturbed to point "b" where the first back
reflection takes place. This first back reflection is equal to Kiu,f(t), where
KJU> is the same coefficient that was earlier defined using the values of Z
on both sides of "b". When this wave reaches point "a", the reflection
back towards point "b" is obtained by using the coefficient K11a which also
was defined earlier, but, this time the values of Z on both sides of "a" are
used. The refraction beyond the point "a" is calculated by the coefficient
KT. which is evaluated using the same relationship given earlier for
evaluating the coefficient KT. The process is repeated for successive
reflections, and the amplitude of each successive wave is expressed in terms
of these coefficients. The above coefficients can be substituted.

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