A Multi-Sectional Arc Eliminator for Protection of Low Voltage Electrical Equipment

The paper presents a system of two oppositely connected multi-sectional thyristor branches. The system works as a multi-sectional arc eliminator (MSAE), protecting low-voltage electrical apparatus against the effects of an arcing fault. MSAE is designed to serve as a device cooperating with protected and secured electrical equipment. The use of thyristors in the proposed solution allows to obtain a high speed of operation, while multi-sectional thyristor branches significantly increase the permissible current load of the arc eliminator. A test circuit was designed and made to test the performance effectiveness of the multi-sectional thyristor arc eliminator. A number of tests were carried out with variable current values in the arc branch, taking into account the influence of thyristor conduction voltage and different thyristor gate release times. It was found that the multi-section thyristor arc eliminator system effectively protects devices powered from low voltage power network against the effects of interference or arc fault.