Limitador de corrente elétrica de núcleo saturado (LCENS) - estudo de topologia de fase única

Abstract

The continuous growth of electric power systems has contributed to increasing short-circuit current levels, making it necessary to adopt solutions capable of reducing the electrical and mechanical stresses imposed on equipment. In this context, Saturated Core Fault Current Limiters (SCFCLs) stand out due to their low impedance under normal operating conditions and high current-limiting capability during fault events. This work proposes and evaluates a new single-phase SCFCL topology based on a single ferromagnetic core saturated by direct current. The device was modeled using Biot-Savart's Law, the analogy between electric and magnetic circuits, Kirchhoff's Voltage Law, and numerical methods for solving the resulting equations. The mathematical model was implemented in Octave and subsequently validated through three-dimensional electromagnetic simulations performed in Ansys Maxwell. The results demonstrated that the proposed topology is capable of effectively limiting short-circuit currents, achieving reductions close to 50\% in the peak current after the first fault half-cycle. It was also verified that increasing the ferromagnetic core depth significantly improved the current-limiting capability of the device, although it also increased its influence during normal operation. The comparison between the Octave and Maxwell models showed qualitatively similar behavior, validating the proposed methodology. It is concluded that the single-core configuration represents a technically feasible alternative to conventional topologies reported in the literature, offering potential advantages in terms of structural simplification and reduction of the number of components. [resumo fornecido pelo autor]