• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.45-53
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to investigate effect of electrical noise on malfunction of the earth leakage circuit breaker. A three-way experiment for studying its malfunction was conducted, in which electrical products such as radio, alternating current are welder and cellular phone, distance from the earth leakage breaker to electrical products, and whether or not the earth leakage breaker is contained is contained in the steel box were employed as experimental variables. Eleven earth leakage breakers frequently used in real situations were tested in each experimental treatment. The electrical products were used for generating electrical noise that is known to be able to cause malfunction of the earth leakage breaker. The results showed that except a case for one of the 11 earth leakage breakers when the radio made by M company was located 30 cm ahead of the breaker, malfunction did not occur in any other experimental treatment. Consequently, it is suggested that the breaker should be normally used for preventing electricity-related accidents without fear of its malfunction in industrial sites.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2007.07a
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• pp.917-918
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• 2007

The former earth leakage breaker is operating by total leakage current which is the vector-sum of resistive leakage current and capacitive leakage current. However, the electric disaster like the electric shock and fire is caused mainly by resistive leakage current. Therefore, the earth leakage breaker is ideal when it is operating by resistive leakage current. In this paper, the theory for finding the component of resistive leakage current from total leakage current is suggested and it is embodied to actual circuit. The resistive leakage current can be found by integrating the total leakage current during half cycle of line voltage. Thus, we can simply find resistive leakage current by using OP-AMP integrators, and we can confirm that the resistive leakage current is computed exactly from total leakage current obtained by resistive leakage current and capacitive leakage current. The results that the earth leakage breaker is operating within regular interrupt time are verified when the former earth leakage breaker's controller circuit is replaced by the proposed controller circuit.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.43-48
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to develop an earth leakage alarm circuit breaker, equipped with a leakage alarming function (JER-E2S, ETECKOREA Co., Korea), and to analyze its characteristics. The developed mechanism is exclusively used for single-phase and 220 V circuits, with a rated current of 32 A, 20 A, 20 A (for restrooms), 16 A, etc. It satisfies all characteristics of existing earth leakage circuit breakers (ELB). If a fire current, which is a resistive leakage current (Igr), flows through an electric line, the device detects the leakage current in real time and warns against the leakage through a blinking LED lamp. Since the developed device displays a tolerance to a capacitative leakage current (Igc) that inevitably occurs in LED lamps, communication devices, etc., it ensures a stable power supply. In addition, the earth leakage alarm circuit breaker protects against power failure due to a momentary ground fault. Therefore, it can supply power without the risk of the circuit breaker malfunctioning due to a momentary ground fault caused by water droplets, leaves, etc. Moreover, with a standby power of less than 0.1 W, the developed earth leakage alarm circuit breaker exhibits a power saving performance that is 3~8 times greater than that of other ELBs. Installation of approximately 10 earth leakage alarm circuit breakers in one apartment household, with an area of 120 ㎡, can save 2~5 kWh per month. Therefore, the developed earth leakage alarm breaker not only satisfies the characteristics of existing earth leakage breakers, but also exhibits outstanding power supply quality since it has the functions of electric fire prevention and malfunction prevention. Therefore, this device can innovatively contribute to electric fire prevention.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.1-8
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• 2022

This study analyzed the characteristics of insulation resistance and operating time based on an accelerated degradation test of a low-voltage circuit breaker. The experimental sample used a molded case circuit breaker (MCCB) and an earth leakage circuit breaker (ELCB). After measuring the insulation resistance of the circuit breakers, the leakage current was affected by an external rather than an internal structure. Furthermore, the insulation resistance of the circuit breakers with accelerated degradation was measured using a Megger insulation tester. In the accelerated degradation test, aging times of five, ten, 15, and 20 years were applied according to a temperature derived using the Arrhenius equation. Circuit breakers with an equivalent life of ten, 15, and 20 years had increased insulation resistance compared to those with less degradation time. In particular, the circuit breaker with an equivalent life of ten years had the highest insulation resistance. Component analysis of the circuit breaker manufactured through an accelerated degradation test confirmed that the timing of the increase in insulation resistance and the time of additive loss were the same. Finally, after analyzing the operating time of the circuit breakers with degradation, it was confirmed that the MCCB did not change, but the ELCB breaker failed.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.198-207
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• 2008

The conventional Residual Current Protective Devices(RCD, or earth leakage circuit breaker, ELB) operates depending on the total leakage current which is the vector-sum of resistive and capacitive components of a leakage current. However, the electric disaster such as electric shock or fire is mainly caused by the resistive component. Therefore, in this view point, the RCD is more realistic when it operates by the resistive component of the leakage current. In this paper, a new algorithm for measuring the resistive leakage current from the total leakage current is suggested, and is realized to an actual circuit. According to the suggested algorithm, the resistive component of the leakage current can be found by integrating the total leakage current over only a half cycle of the line voltage, and it is realized by using analog switches and resettable integrators. It is confirmed through experiments that the suggested algorithm detects, within maximum average error of 6.74%, the resistive leakage current from the total leakage current, and the RCD employing the suggested algorithm brakes the circuit within the regular interrupt time(30msec).

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.62 no.6
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• pp.876-880
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• 2013

The major causes of electrical fire are classified to short circuit fault, overload fault, electric leakage and electric contact failure. The principal factor of the fire is electric arc or spark accompanied with such electric faults. Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker (ELB) and Molded_case Circuit Breaker (MCCB), that is, Residual Current Protective Devices (RCDs) used on low voltage distribution lines cut off earth leakage and overload, but the RCD can not cut off electric arc or spark to be a major factor of electrical fire. As the RCDs which are applied in low voltage distribution panel are prescribed to rated breaking time about 30[ms] (KS C 4613), the RCDs can't perceive to the periodic electric arc or spark of more short wavelength level. To improve such problems, this paper studies on an arc fault circuit interrupter (AFCI) using the distorted voltage wave in electric arc faults. The proposed voltage sensing type AFCI is an electrical fire prevention apparatus of new conception that operates a circuit breaker with sensing the instantaneous voltage drop of line voltage at electrical faults occurrence. The proposed AFCI is composed of control circuit topology using some semiconductor switching devices. Some experimental tests of the proposed AFCI confirm practicality and the validity of the analytical results.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2003.07a
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• pp.357-359
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• 2003

This paper is for the transient analysis of instant short-circuit test equipment according to the test of tripping limits and characteristics under IEC 60947-2. The in-rush current is harmful to almost equipments and the exact testing is not made because of it. LGIS has a instant short-circuit test equipment, but it is not suitable for carrying out instant short-circuit test on ELB(Earth Leakage Circuit breaker) by reason of that. Now, I am going to show a solution for that problem. After applying this method, manufacturer is going to acquire the exact testing result according to the IEC standard. Moreover, Testing laboratory will be trusted by clients.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.255-260
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• 2002

Recently, the occurrences of electrical fire have been suppressed by an earth leakage breaker(ELB), a no fuse breaker(NFB) and a fuse in case of an earth leakage, a short circuit and an over current. But it is impossible for the ELB to break the circuit in the case of the failure of pressure contacts on connecting points and the momentary short circuit. Therefore, it is require to study the constructive problem of the ELB. In this paper, we have developed the auxiliary control device, electrical fire prevention control device(EFPCD), of the ELB. And we have tested the operation characteristics of the ELB according to the load(R, L) As a result of this experiment, we could prevent the electrical fire due to the spark and the overheat occurring in the failure of pressure contacts on connecting points and the momentary short circuit.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.150-159
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• 2021

This study aimed to prevent inconvenience to electric vehicle users caused by an interruption of charging by the earth leakage breaker trip that occurs during charging. As a field case study, it was confirmed that during the battery charger failure type, leakage current measurement experiment by vehicle type, and leakage current breaker operation experiment, the internal temperature of the charger rose to more than 60 ℃ in summer, and the earth leakage circuit breaker stopped charging by tripping at 80% of the rated sensitivity current. Through Joule heating modeling, 32A is energized at the reference temperature of 30 ℃ at the initial time t=0 (s). After t=3000 (s), the heat generated around the charging part of the earth leakage breaker increased to 32.4 ℃. The temperature and time factors correlated with the amount of heat generated according to the statistical verification tool with a correlation coefficient of 0.97. Overall, it is possible to prevent the leakage breaker sensitivity current trip due to an increase in temperature inside the charger in summer by performing a Joule heating simulation according to the material of the charging case, the arrangement of the internal wiring, and the dielectric medium when developing the charger device.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.478-479
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• 2007

Many electrical fires are occurred by leakage currents and sparks generated by a short circuit. Earth leakage circuit breakers (ELCBs) should be tripped at the moment of the faults mentioned above. In this paper, we described the tripping characteristics of ELCBs against parallel arcing faults. A diesel engine generator with the capacity of 375 kVA source was adopted to provide enough large current when a parallel arcing occurred. The experimental results showed that most ELCBs we experimented were not tripped against short-duration pulse currents produced by parallel arcing because the ELCBs are designed to be tripped by a large current with long duration similar to power frequency.