Field Distribution and Performance Analysis of a Passive Magnetic Fault-current Limiter under Transient Conditions

Abstract

A magnetic fault-current limiter is a passive device consisting of a permanent magnet and saturable magnetic cores. It offers low inductance to the circuit under a normal operating condition and places a high inductance under a faulted condition. The current suppression capability of a steel core is higher than that of a ferrite-core fault-current limiter having the same dimension and topology. This article aims to investigate the transient performance of a fault-current limiter with steel and ferrite cores. Finite element analysis is used to observe the flux and mmf distribution inside the fault-current limiter under normal and faulted conditions.

Keywords:

• magnetic current limiter
• NdFeB permanent magnet
• parallel biasing
• transient modeling
• Tableau approach
• finite element analysis