Performance analysis of an open-core type three-phase saturated iron-core superconducting fault current limiter

A very common kind of fault that appear in an electrical power system is the short-circuit fault, which were traditionally handled by the use of protective devices like fuses or circuit breakers which would disconnect the power supply to protect the components of the network. An alternative to these are fault current limiters (FCL), which are protective devices that limit or suppress the high-magnitude currents created during a short-circuit fault, thereby preventing damage to sensitive equipment and also aid in providing uninterrupted power supply to the consumers. A saturated iron-core superconducting fault current limiter (SISFCL) employs the ferromagnetic property of its core material to automatically suppress high-magnitude currents. In this paper, the performance of an open-core type three-phase SISFCL design is evaluated against three different kinds of short-circuit faults. The analysis is performed using finite element modelling (FEM) in the ANSYS Maxwell software environment.