Advanced approaches to addressing direct-current arcing faults
BY MICHAEL FURTAK & LEW SILECKY, Mersen
Let’s face it: there is not very much information available about direct current (DC) arc flashes. And, if you have searched in vain, well hopefully this feature will give you some insight into arc flash with relevance to DC circuits. Essentially, we want customers to be armed with information so that they can accurately determine the necessary level of protection required when working around these circuits.
In this feature, direct-current arcing fault incident energy calculations are presented to assess the level of risk involved when working around high-current DC electrical equipment. The proposed procedure allows incident energy and arc flash boundaries to be evaluated, while taking into account as many circuit parameters as possible.
These parameters include fixed or variable gap length, electrode material, system voltage, available fault current, equipment configuration, circuit time constant and evaluated threshold energy for a second degree burn. Read more about arc flash analysis in DC power systems in the expanded digital edition of Electrical Source Magazine.
Read the full article in our digital magazine
