Bridge Type Solid State Fault Current Limiter Based on AC DC Reactor

This paper proposes a novel bridge-type solid-state fault current limiter (BSSFCL) based on one series reactor which operates in ac and dc modes. The proposed BSSFCL includes a rectifier bridge with a reactor. This reactor is used as a dc reactor in normal operation mode and as an ac reactor in fault conditions. The advantages of the proposed BSSFCL over the existing dc reactor-type FCLs are its negligible impedance in normal operation mode and its high impedance during a fault interval using simple and novel switching. In other words, during the normal operation mode, the proposed BSSFCL operates in dc mode and in the fault interval, its topology is changed to the ac mode. This switching decreases the switching transient recovery voltage and introduces considerable impedance during the fault period. MATLAB/Simulink software is used for simulations and a prototype is designed and tested for results verification, and to show the performance of the proposed BSSFCL.