Parameter Design and Performance Investigation of a Novel Bridge-Type Saturated Core Fault Current Limiter

A saturated core fault current limiter (SCFCL) is a promising device for limiting the fault currents effectively, and improving the safety and reliability of power systems. Due to the core structure and the coupling effect between the ac and dc windings, traditional SCFCLs suffer the drawbacks of insufficient clipping performance and large size. Moreover, theoretical analysis of fault clipping performance has received little attention. Therefore, this paper proposes a novel bridge-type SCFCL (BSFCL). Compared with the traditional type, the BSFCL effectively reduces size and cost by using a bridge-type structure. In addition, the proposed additional limiting inductor improves the fault clipping performance of SCFCL. This paper first presents the principle and characteristics of BSFCL. Then, a theoretical analysis of clipping performance and parameter design method of BSFCL are presented in detail. Finally, the principle and performance of BSFCL are validated through electromagnetic simulation and experiments. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the theoretical analysis and the structure. The influence of different BSFCL parameters on fault clipping performance is also discussed.