Reduction of Electromagnetic Force in AC Distributed Winding of Fault Current Limiter under Short-Circuit Condition

Various kinds of winding arrangements can be used to enable fault current limiters (FCL) to tolerate higher forces without resulting in a substantial increase in construction and fabrication costs. In this paper, a distributed winding arrangement is investigated in terms of its effects on the short-circuit forces in a three-phase FCL. The force magnitudes of the AC supplied windings are calculated by employing a finite element based model in the time stepping procedure. The leakage flux and radial and axial force magnitudes obtained from the simulation are compared to those obtained from a conventional winding arrangement. The comparison shows that the distributed winding arrangement significantly reduces the radial and, especially, the axial force magnitudes.