Experimental Research and Analysis of a Novel Liquid Metal Fault Current Limiter

This paper deals with the experimental research on a novel current limiter, which mainly takes advantage of the gas pressure in the liquid metal when arcing. A novel current-limiting principle is put forward on account of the pressure measurement results within an experimental device. According to this principle, a U-shape sliding part is designed and pushed upward under the gas pressure, which subsequently squeezes the arc into a narrow slot. Furthermore, a specially designed setup is employed to observe the moving process of the sliding part along with the arc behavior. It can be classified into three dynamic stages according to the frames obtained by a high-speed camera. The average velocity of the sliding part can reach about 11 m/s. Finally the influences on the current-limiting performance with the novel improved setup are explored and determined. It demonstrates that this novel method can enhance the current-limiting efficiency to some extent.