Simulations of Three-Phase Current Interruptions through a Black-Box Model of Miniature Circuit Breakers

A black-box model for arc-based current interruption, originally developed by the same authors for single-phase short-circuit tests, is here challenged with multipolar circuit breakers in three-phase interruptions. Multipolar devices are built by composition of elementary, single pole components. The three phases adopt three replicas of the same single-phase model, its parameters having been identified in single pole tests. Splitter-less neutral poles adopt a simplified model, deduced by specialization of the original model after suitably dropping splitter plate features. Various breakers and test cases are considered. Comparisons with experimental results in real short-circuit tests show very good agreement, in line with motivating industrial, system-level applications. Indeed, model parameters are obviously single pole design dependent, but they are invariant to different operating conditions and no fine tuning is required to match empirical evidence.