ALTERNATING CURRENT CIRCUIT BREAKER COMPRISING A SERIES REACTOR FOR SHAPING CURRENT AND VOLTAGE WAVES NEAR CURRENT ZERO

摘要

Discloses an a-c circuit breaker comprising the series combination of a reactor and a circuit interrupter that opens in response to overcurrents. The reactor saturates during a severe overcurrent and then comes out of saturation just prior to current zero to force the arcing current to decay at a much lower rate during this latter period than during the immediately preceding period. The reactor is prevented from saturating during normal currents by an air gap in its core which is bridged in response to an overcurrent by a magnetizable armature.