{"title":"Design of Vacuum Interrupters for DC Circuit Breaker Topologies: A Comprehensive Review","authors":"Verena West;Philipp Wienkamp;Simon Kimpeler;Willem Leterme","doi":"10.1109/TPS.2026.3723973","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Medium-voltage (MV) and high-voltage (HV) direct-current (DC) circuit breakers, including current injection and hybrid DC circuit breakers (DCCBs), commonly use a mechanical breaker in the nominal current path to carry the load current and auxiliary circuits for the DC interruption. Vacuum interrupters (VIs) are investigated as the mechanical breaker, but their application in DCCBs presents new design challenges, because the requirements differ from alternating current (AC) interruption. This article presents a structured review of DCCB topologies that use VIs by analyzing reported operating conditions for the interrupter, to derive application-specific VI requirements. For active current injection (ACI) DCCBs, dielectric recovery under steep rate of rise of current (<inline-formula> <tex-math>$dI/dt$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) presents the key challenge, motivating VI designs promoting a fully diffuse arc. In natural-commutation hybrid DCCBs (HCBs) the interruption limit is in part determined by the current commutation. Therefore, controllable high arc voltage and coordination between dielectric recovery and blocking timing of the power electronics are dominant design levers for VIs in HCBs.","PeriodicalId":450,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science","volume":"54 10","pages":"4901-4909"},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2026-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science","FirstCategoryId":"101","ListUrlMain":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11667768/","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2026/8/26 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PHYSICS, FLUIDS & PLASMAS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Medium-voltage (MV) and high-voltage (HV) direct-current (DC) circuit breakers, including current injection and hybrid DC circuit breakers (DCCBs), commonly use a mechanical breaker in the nominal current path to carry the load current and auxiliary circuits for the DC interruption. Vacuum interrupters (VIs) are investigated as the mechanical breaker, but their application in DCCBs presents new design challenges, because the requirements differ from alternating current (AC) interruption. This article presents a structured review of DCCB topologies that use VIs by analyzing reported operating conditions for the interrupter, to derive application-specific VI requirements. For active current injection (ACI) DCCBs, dielectric recovery under steep rate of rise of current ($dI/dt$ ) presents the key challenge, motivating VI designs promoting a fully diffuse arc. In natural-commutation hybrid DCCBs (HCBs) the interruption limit is in part determined by the current commutation. Therefore, controllable high arc voltage and coordination between dielectric recovery and blocking timing of the power electronics are dominant design levers for VIs in HCBs.
期刊介绍:
The scope covers all aspects of the theory and application of plasma science. It includes the following areas: magnetohydrodynamics; thermionics and plasma diodes; basic plasma phenomena; gaseous electronics; microwave/plasma interaction; electron, ion, and plasma sources; space plasmas; intense electron and ion beams; laser-plasma interactions; plasma diagnostics; plasma chemistry and processing; solid-state plasmas; plasma heating; plasma for controlled fusion research; high energy density plasmas; industrial/commercial applications of plasma physics; plasma waves and instabilities; and high power microwave and submillimeter wave generation.