Component Protection

Wire & Cable

The circuit shown originates at a distribution panel where 40,000 amps RMS symmetrical is available. To determine the proper fuse, first establish the shortcircuit withstand data for the 10 AWG THW copper cable shown in the diagram.

Short-Circuit Current Withstand Chart for Copper Cables with Thermoplastic Insulation

Short-Circuit Protection of Wire and Cable

The following table shows the short-circuit withstand of copper cable with 75C thermoplastic insulation based on Insulated Cable Engineers Association (ICEA) formulae. The short-circuit withstand of the 10 AWG THW copper conductor is 4300A for one cycle (0.0167 seconds). Short-circuit protection of this conductor requires the selection of an overcurrent device which will limit the 40,000A RMS symmetrical available to a value less than 4300A, and clear the fault in one cycle or less. The Low-Peak dual-element fuse let-through chart shows that the LPS-RK30SP Low-Peak dual-element fuse will let-through an apparent prospective RMS current of less than 1800A, when 40,000A is available (and would clear the fault in less than 12 cycle).

Short-Circuit Currents for Insulated Cables

The increase in kVA capacity of power distribution systems has resulted in possible short-circuit currents of extremely high magnitude. Conductor insulation may be seriously damaged by fault induced, high conductor temperatures. As a guide in preventing such serious damage, maximum allowable short circuit temperatures, which damage the insulation to a slight extent only, have been established for various insulation as follows: Paper, rubber and varnished cloth 200C Thermoplastic 150C The chart at the top of next column shows the currents which, after flowing for the times indicated, will produce these maximum temperatures for each conductor size. The system short circuit capacity, the conductor crosssectional area and the overcurrent protective device opening time should be such that these maximum allowable short-circuit currents are not exceeded. Using the formula shown on the ICEA protection table will allow calculating withstand ratings of conductors. It may be advantageous to calculate withstand ratings below one cycle, when the opening time of the currentlimiting device is known; see table below.

CONDUCTOR SIZE *Copyright 1969 (reaffirmed March, 1992) by the Insulated Cable Engineers Association (ICEA). Permission has been given by ICEA to reprint this chart

Protecting Equipment Grounding Conductors

Safety issues arise when the analysis of equipment grounding conductors (EGC) is discussed. Table 250.122 of the NEC offers minimum sizing for equipment grounding conductors. Equipment grounding conductors are much more difficult to protect than phase conductors because the overcurrent protective device is most often several sizes larger than the ampacity of equipment grounding conductor. The problem of protecting equipment grounding conductors was recognized more than 30 years ago when Eustace Soares, wrote his famous grounding book Grounding Electrical Distribution Systems for Safety. In his book he states that the validity rating corresponds to the amount of energy required to cause the copper to become loose under a lug after the conductor has had a chance to cool back down. This validity rating is based upon raising the copper temperature from 75C to 250C. In addition to this and the ICEA charts, a third method promoted by Onderdonk allows the calculation of the energy necessary to cause the conductor to melt (75C to 1083C). The table on the next page offers a summary of these values associated with various size copper conductors.

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Component Protection
Wire & Cable
It becomes obvious that the word Minimum in the heading of NEC Table 250.122 means just that - the values in the table are a minimum - they may have to be increased due to the available short-circuit current and the currentlimiting, or non-current-limiting ability of the overcurrent protective device. 250.4(A)(5) and 250.4(B)(4) require grounding conductors sized adequately for the short-circuit current that could be let-through. This means that based on the available short-circuit current, the overcurrent protective device characteristics (its let-through current), the grounding conductor may have to be sized larger than the minimum size in Table 250.122. Good engineering practice requires the calculation of the available short-circuit currents (3-phase and phase-to-ground values) wherever equipment grounding conductors are used. Overcurrent protective device (fuse or circuit breaker) manufacturers literature must be consulted. Let-through energies for these devices should be compared with the short circuit ratings of the equipment grounding conductors. Wherever let-through energies exceed the minimum equipment grounding conductor withstand ratings, the equipment grounding conductor size must be increased until the withstand ratings are not exceeded.

Take the example below. The EGC must be protected from damage. It can withstand 4300A of current for 1 cycle. The 1 cycle opening time of the circuit breaker will cause damage to the 10 AWG EGC. However, a current-limiting

fuse will limit the current to within the withstand rating of the EGC. An LPSRK60SP will limit the line to ground current to approximately 3300A, providing protection.

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Component Protection
Small Wire, NFPA 79
16 and 18 AWG Conductors For Industrial Machinery Power Circuits
The 2002 edition of NFPA 79, Electrical Standard for Industrial Machinery, allows the use of 16 and 18 AWG as branch circuit conductors if specific protection requirements are met. Note, in general 14 AWG is the smallest branch circuit conductor allowed in the NEC;16 and 18 AWG branch circuit conductors are not allowed per the NEC for building system conductors. Why the change to permit 16 and 18 AWG conductors? One of the major objectives of NFPA 79-2002 was to harmonize, where possible, with IEC60204. This IEC standard allows for smaller conductors. What is the challenge with using smaller conductors? Small conductors are a challenge to protect under short circuit conditions; some overcurrent protective devices are unable to provide protection. The smaller the conductor size, the lower the short-circuit current withstand. 16 and 18 AWG conductors have extremely low short-circuit current withstandability. Based on the ICEA (Insulated Cable Engineers Association) conductor withstand equation presented in a previous section, copper conductors, 75C thermoplastic insulation have these short-circuit withstands: They chose to segregate the Class J, CC and T fuses because the published UL/CSA/ANCE 248 Fuse Standards for these fuses (for applicable amp ratings) have established performance short circuit let-through limits that are lower than the ICEA conductor short-circuit withstand limits. This means that these fuses will let-through less energy than the ICEA damage threshold, so conductor protection is assured. Therefore, the task in this case was to prove this hypothesis. Testing was performed using special umbrella fuses with let-through values above the UL/CSA/ANCE fuse standard limits. The results: these fuses protected the 16 and 18 AWG conductors, passing both visual inspections and dielectric testing. UL issued a Special Service Investigation, An Investigation of the use of 16 and 18 AWG Conductors for Power Branch Circuits in Industrial Machinery Applications, file number E4273 to verify the test results. The analysis, test program and results can also be viewed in an IEEE paper presented at the 2002 IEEE Industrial and Commercial Power Systems Technical Conference titled, An Investigation of the Use of 16 and 18 AWG Conductors for Branch Circuits in Industrial Machinery Built to NFPA 79 2002. The report and paper can be found on www.cooperbussmann.com. What about overcurrent protective devices other than Class J, CC, and T fuses? Other Classes of fuses, or circuit breakers must be evaluated, tested and listed to protect 16 and 18 AWG conductors in branch circuits. The electrical industry will revise the appropriate standards with procedures that evaluate these other overcurrent protective devices to the application considerations that the NFPA 79 Small Wire Working Group utilized. The Small Wire Working Group noted some of the specific criteria that is necessary to evaluate overcurrent protection for protection of 16 and 18 AWG conductors for industrial machinery applications:
1. Conductor length can vary greatly: 1 foot, 4 feet and 100 feet lengths of conductor were tested to cover a wide variety of installations. 2. Short-circuit current tests with full L-L voltage on one pole of a circuit to insure the overcurrent protective device can protect conductors for various types of grounding schemes. L-G faults are very prevalent fault conditions. And full L-L system voltage can be present for single or multiple L-G faults on some grounding systems. For example, the let-through I2t for a 480 volt fault opened by only one pole is much greater than that same fault opened by two poles of that same device. 3. The damage level for conductors was selected as the ICEA Allowable ShortCircuit Currents For Insulated Conductors. After the overcurrent tests, to assess the conductor insulation integrity, a reliable test method (not just visual inspection) via dielectric insulation testing was used. 4. It is necessary to protect these small conductors for all levels of short-circuit current. Tests were conducted with 5000A, 10,000A and 50,000A of available short-circuit current to ensure protection at low, intermediate and high fault levels.

The NFPA 79 proposal for allowing 16 and 18 AWG for branch circuits was accepted based on a study conducted by the Small Wire Working Group formed by the NFPA 79 Committee. The Small Wire Working Group studied the critical application considerations for small conductors in industrial machinery, proposed the requirements and conducted UL witnessed tests to prove the proposed requirements are acceptable. After considering several damage criteria, the group decided to use the ICEA damage levels because they were the most conservative. All other methods allowed certain amounts of damage. The Small Wire Working Group had to determine the requirements for a proposal to NFPA 79 on how the conductors would be protected. Their analysis and testing resulted in proposing different approaches or requirements for different type overcurrent protective devices. This allowance is conditional and limited to certain requirements such as: limited ampacity circuits, specific overcurrent protective device criteria, and limits for physical damage. Specific overcurrent protective devices must be selected in order to use 16 and 18 AWG for branch circuit conductors. These devices are:

Fuse Protection
1. Class CC, J, or T fuses, or 2. Other fuses listed and marked for protection of 16 or 18 AWG wire

At the time of this updated publication, a new SPD for Industrial Control Panels and Industrial Machinery is being written. The specifics on the small wire requirements and sizing will be in this new publication. When completed this new publication will be available at www.cooperbussmann.com.

Circuit Breaker Protection

3. Circuit breakers listed and marked for protection of 16 or 18 AWG conductors

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