A study on the dynamic behavior of multibody dynamics model on vacuum circuit breaker: Operating characteritics improvement of the VCB using Taguchi method

The VCB(Vacuum Circuit Breaker) have three main circuits which contain the VI(Vacuum Interrupter) and has the main frame unit as an operating mechanism. The operating mechanism generally uses a spring energy for movement of heavy linkages and electric contacts in the VI. In order to reliably cut off the breaking current, electric contacts are separated as fast as possible. Generally, the opening speed of the VCB after contact separation has to be a 0.9~1.1 m/s. Therefore, to satisfy the required opening velocity of the VCB contacts, the optimization of the design parameters of VCB is needed. In this study, firstly, to describe the dynamic responses of the VCB, the analytical multibody dynamics model using Recurdyn has been developed. Secondly, the prototype sample has manufactured to verify the analytical Recurdyn model. To improve the opening velocity of the VCB which has heavy loads, Taguchi design method is applied as optimization procedure.