Abstract
The major causes of electrical fire are classified to short circuit fault, overload fault, electric leakage and electric contact failure. The principal factor of the fire is electric arc or spark accompanied with such electric faults. Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker (ELB) and Molded_case Circuit Breaker (MCCB), that is, Residual Current Protective Devices (RCDs) used on low voltage distribution lines cut off earth leakage and overload, but the RCD can not cut off electric arc or spark to be a major factor of electrical fire. As the RCDs which are applied in low voltage distribution panel are prescribed to rated breaking time about 30[ms] (KS C 4613), the RCDs can't perceive to the periodic electric arc or spark of more short wavelength level. To improve such problems, this paper studies on an arc fault circuit interrupter (AFCI) using the distorted voltage wave in electric arc faults. The proposed voltage sensing type AFCI is an electrical fire prevention apparatus of new conception that operates a circuit breaker with sensing the instantaneous voltage drop of line voltage at electrical faults occurrence. The proposed AFCI is composed of control circuit topology using some semiconductor switching devices. Some experimental tests of the proposed AFCI confirm practicality and the validity of the analytical results.
