Serial Arc-Fault Restriction Survey With Standard-Listed Products in the Chinese Market

To prevent incidents caused by AC series arc faults, arc fault detection devices or arc-fault circuit interrupters have been introduced into the Chinese market where these products must pass the IEC62606 or GB31143 tests, which are developed to ensure the device's capabilities with resistance to missed tripping and unwanted tripping. However, the performance of representative products in realistic domestic environments is not as good as it should be. This article presents a comprehensive investigation into these devices experimentally on the ability to clear the arcing fault under series arc faults and avoid unwanted trips in a normal circuit with mixed loads. It is found that less than half of the selected products passed the standard tests. The products passing the standard test failed in one or more additional tests with more diverse appliances or more complicated circuit configurations. Through analyzing the current waveforms collected in failure cases, realistic experiments with diverse appliances and complex load configurations were provided for inclusion in the dataset creation for detection algorithm development and in the standard for certification.