NARULLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

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REPORT ON SF6 CIRCUIT BREAKER

REPORT ON SF6 CIRCUIT BREAKER

SUBMITTED BY
ABHINAW KUMAR RAI
M.TECH (POWER SYSTEM)

CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
HISTROY

3
3
4-7

WHY SF6??
Manufacturing of Sulfur Hexafluoride Gas
Physical Properties of SF6
Elecrical Properties of SF6

WORKING PRINCIPLE
Puffing Mechanism

SF6 DECOMPOSITION PRODUCTS

ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES

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10-11

12-13
1
3-15

COMPARISION BETWEEN SF6 AND VACCUM

CIRCUIT BREAKER
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CONCLUSION
REFRENCES

INTRODUCTION
A circuit breaker in which the current carrying contacts operate in Sulphur Hexafluoride
or SF6 gas is known as an SF6 Circuit Breaker.
SF6 has excellent insulating property. SF6 has high electro-negativity. That means it
has high affinity of absorbing free electron. Whenever a free electron collides with the
SF6 gas molecule, it is absorbed by that gas molecule and forms a negative ion.
SF6 switchgear is currently used world-wide. It is estimated that an average of about 80
% of HV equipment manufactured now has an SF6 content.

Types of SF6 Circuit Breaker

There are mainly three types of SF6 CB depending upon the voltage level of application
1) Single Interrupter SF6 CB applied for up to 245KV(220KV) system
2) Two Interrupter SF6 CB applied for up to 420KV(400KV) system
3) Four Interrupter SF6 CB applied for up to 800KV(715KV) system

HISTROY
This gas was first realized in the year of 1900 in the laboratories of the Faculte de
Pharmacie de, Paris.
In the year of 1937, General Electrical Company first realized that SF6 gas i.e. sulfur
hexafluoride gas can be used as insulating material. After second world war, i.e. in the
middle of 20th century, popularity of using sulphur hexafluoride gas as insulating
material in electrical system was rising very rapidly.
Allied Chemical Corporation and Pennsalt were the first American industries, who
began to produce this gas commercially in 1948. During 1960, using of sulfur
hexafluoride gas in high voltage switchgear became popular. As the demand of this gas
was increasing many manufacturers in Europe and America started producing SF6 gas in
large scale, during that time. At the beginning sulphur hexafluoride gas only used for

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insulating purpose in the electrical system. But soon it was realized that this gas has
tremendous arc quenching property. Hence, this gas also began to be used in circuit
breaker as arc quenching medium.
Worlds first SF6 gas insulated sub-station was established in Paris in the year of 1966.
Sulphur hexafluoride medium voltage circuit breakers launched into market from 1971.

WHY SF6??
Manufacturing of Sulfur Hexafluoride Gas

SF6 or sulfur hexafluoride gas commercially is manufactured by

reaction of fluorine (obtained by electrolysis) with sulfur. During
process of producing of this gas, other by products like SF4, SF2, S2F2,
S2F10 are also produced in small percentages. Not only these
byproducts, impurities like air, moisture, CO2 are also present in the gas,
during production. All these byproducts and impurities are filtered at
different stages of purification to get pure and refine final product.

SF6 or sulfur hexafluoride gas molecules are combined by one sulfur

and six fluorine atoms.

The sulfur has atomic number of 16. That

means, it has 2 electrons in first energy level, 8
electrons in second energy level and rest 6
electron in third energy level.Electronic
configuration of sulphur atom is 2, 8, 6 i.e. 1S2
2S2 2P6 3S2 3P4.

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The fluorine atom has atomic number 9.

The electronic configuration of fluorine is
1S2 2S2 2P5.

Each sulphur atom in SF6 molecule creates covalent

bond with 6 fluorine atoms. In this way sulfur atom gets
total 6 covalent bond, i.e. 6 pair of electrons at its outer
shell, and each flourine atom gets 8 electrons in its
outer most shell.

Here we can observe that, in sulfur hexafluoride external shell of

sulphur atom has 12 electrons instead of 8 electrons. That means here
sulfur does not obey general octal rule of atomic structure which states
that, an stable atom requires 8 electrons at its outermost shell. This is not
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an exceptional case. Some elements in 3rd period and below can form
compound that exceed 8 electrons in its outer most shell.

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

SF6 is one of the heaviest known gases

The variation of pressure with temperature is linear and relatively
small in the range of service temperatures (-25 to + 50C)
volumetric specific heat of SF6 is 3.7 times that of air.

ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES

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 The excellent dielectric properties of SF6 are due to the

electronegative character of its molecule . It has a pronounced
tendency to capture free electrons forming heavy ions with low
mobility making the development of electron avalanches very
difficult.
The dielectric strength of SF6 is about 2.5 times higher than that of
air under the same conditions.

For non-uniform fields a maximum breakdown voltage is obtained

at a pressure of about 0,2 Mpa

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 Because of its low dissociation temperature and high dissociation

energy, SF6 is an excellent arc quenching gas.

WORKING PRINCIPLE:

The interrupting unit filled

with pressurized SF6 gas is
placed at the top of the pole
and contains Stationary
Contact, Nozzle, Moving
Contact, Puffer Cylinder and
Fixed Piston (Fig.1).
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During opening operation (Fig.2),

the Moving Contact along with
the Puffer Cylinder is pulled
down. The Fixed and Moving
contacts get separated and arc is
formed between fixed contact
and moving contact.
Motion of the Puffer Cylinder
compresses SF6 against the
Fixed Piston thus generating a
powerful SF6 blast through the
Nozzle over the arc. After
travelling through some
distance, the dielectric strength

PUFFING MECHANISIM:
The moving cylinder is coupled with the movable conductor against
the fixed piston, and there is a relative movement between the moving
cylinder and the fixed piston .The gas is compressed in the cavity.
This trapped gas is released through the nozzle, during arc extinction
process. During the travel, of the moving contact and the movable
cylinder, the gas puffs over the arc and reduces the arc diameter by
axial convection and radial dissipation. At current zero, the arc
diameter becomes too small and the arc gets extinguished. The
puffing action continues for some time, even after the arc extinction,
and the contact space is filled with cool, fresh gas.

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SF6 DECOMPOSITION PRODUCTS

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SO2 + HF

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AMOUNT OF EACH DECOMPOSITION

PRODUCTS DEPENDS UPON
Magnitude & duration of discharge
Materials of construction of equipment
Contamination levels of moisture and air inside the equipment

REMOVAL OF SF6 BYPRODUCTS:Byproducts are corrosive & likely to affect the organic materials.
Absorbent materials used in circuit breakers
activated alumina( effective for SOF2,H2S,SF2)
Molecular sieves ( sodalime-CaO.NaOH)-removes stable gases such
as SF4,SiF4 & S2F2
So suggested mix is 50/50 of sodalime & alumina.The suggested
weight of absorbent is 10% of the weight of the gas.

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ADVANTAGES OF SF6 CIRCUIT BREAKER:

Electrical clearances are very much reduced because of high

dielectric strength of SF6
Outdoor EHV SF6 circuit breaker has less number of interrupters
per pole in comparison to the air-blast circuit breaker and minimum
oil breaker.
SF6 circuit breaker is simple, comparatively cheaper in cost,
maintenance free and compact
Its performance is not affected due to variation in atmospheric
conditions
It gives noiseless operation it does not make sound like air-blast
circuit breaker during operation
Minimum maintenance. The breaker may require maintenance once
in four to ten years
The SF6 gas circuit breaker can perform various duties like clearing
short line faults, opening unloaded transmission lines, capacitor
switching, transformer reactor switching etc without any problem

DISADVANTAGES OF SF6 CIRCUIT BREAKER:

Imperfect joints leading to leakage of the SF6 gas. Continuous
monitoring devices are required
Arced SF6 gas is poisonous and should not be inhaled
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 SF6 gas being heavier than the air settles in the surroundings and
may lead to suffocation of the operating personnel. However it is
not poisonous
it may contribute to the man made greenhouse-effect, if it is
released into the atmosphere.

COMPARISION BETWEEN SF6 AND VACCUM

CIRCUIT BREAKER:
THE DIELECTRIC STRENGTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS

According to the Dielectric strength. SF6 has better behavior than

vacuum (Figure). That is why SF6 has generalized as insulating an arc as
quenching medium. The use of SF6 makes possible to reduce the size of
electric equipment and so the required space for installation. That is the
reason why its most important use. About 50% of the total, is as
dielectric in electric devices, as CBs.

Besides, under normal conditions. SF6 is an inert,non- flammable, noncorrosive, odorless and non-toxic gas. However, at temperatures over
10000C SF6 decomposes to gases including S 2F10 which is highly
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toxic. Fortunately, the decomposition products recombine abruptly after

arc extinction (when the temperature goes down). It could be said then.
that SF6 would be the perfect quenching medium for a CB if it was not
environmentally harmful. SF6 has been labeled as one of the major
global warming gases, since the 3'd Session of the Conference of the
Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change. The fact that SF6 is a special global warning contributory gas is
based on its stable molecular composition, as it becomes indestructible
for a long period of time, over 3200 years.
In Table I a comparison between several gases with regards to their
lifetime years and their Global Warming Potential (GWP) is shown.

In contrast, as in VCBs the quenching media is vacuum, there is no risk

for the environment. In fact, they consist on an ordinary glass container
and metallic components, that is, recyclable materials.
Vacuum brings its own advantages and disadvantages, which differ from
those of SF6. Among the advantages that VCBs present. there can be
highlighted that the construction of VCBs is simple and the number of
components is small, approximately 50% less than in a SF6 CB. That
leads to a long operation life, with very high number of operating cycles.
Besides. the small amount of components and simple construction also
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brings a compact size and a light weight for VCBs, and consequently an
easy maintenance and inspection.
Another advantage of VCBs is the higher dielectric resistance recovery
after current zero. And finally, as it has been mentioned, there is no
environmental damage in a VCB. As in the case of SF6 CBs and neither
danger of explosion or fire as there is for oil CBs. However, a major
disadvantage is their cost. SF6 CBs are still cheaper, what does not make
a VCB competitive. More work must be done in order to reduce the cost
of VCBs so that they can become an economic alternative to the SF6
technology.
CONCLUSION:
The adoption of SF6 in switchgear for all operating conditions has
brought advantages in performance, size, weight, global cost and
reliability.

REFRENCES:
http://www.openelectrical.org/wiki/index.php?
title=File:40.5_kV_SF6_Circuit_Breaker.jpg&limit=20
http://ww2.wapa.gov/sites/western/newsroom/NewsFeatures/Documents/2011/APPATeama
ward.aspx
www.schneider-electric.co.in/documents/technical-publications/en/shared/electricalengineering/breaking-techniques-switchgear/general-knowledge/ect188.pdf
sf6
circuit
breakers properties
http://www.capitalelectric.com/main.cfm

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