Fault Current Limiter Using YBCO Coated ConductoraThe Limiting Factor and Its Recovery Time

• Published in: IEEE transactions on applied superconductivity Vol. 19; no. 3
• Main Authors: Baldan, CA, Lamas, J S, Shigue, CY, Filho, E R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-01-2009
• Subjects: COATINGS; Conductors (devices); Constraining; COPPER OXIDE; Current limiters; ELECTRICAL CONDUCTORS; Faults; Recovery time; Superconducting tapes; SUPERCONDUCTIVITY; SUPERCONDUCTORS; TAPE; YBCO superconductors; YTTRIUM OXIDE
• ISSN: 1051-8223
• DOI: 10.1109/TASC.2009.2019043

A fault current limiter (FCL) based on an arrangement of parallel connected high temperature superconducting tapes constituting a limiter element was designed and tested in 220 V line for a fault current peak between 1 kA to 2 kA. The limiter employed second generation (2G) HTS tapes of YBCO coated conductor reinforced with stainless steel. Four tapes were electrically connected in parallel with 0.4 m effective length per element wherein 16 elements connected in series constitutes a single-phase unit. The FCL performance was evaluated through over-current and current fault tests. Its recovery characteristics were used to design the shunt protection. The designed limiting ratio is 4 for 16 elements and the experimental result for one element showed a 20% limiting ratio. For the fault current test one element can withstand five cycles of fault without degradation. It was observed recovery times below 0.5 s under nominal load using a shunt resistance of 173 mOmega.