Dr.
Javed Ahmed Laghari
PhD, University of Malaya, Malaysia
Associate Professor
javed@[Link]
Department of Electrical Engineering
QUEST, Nawabshah, Sindh, Pakistan
1
Def: “A fuse is a short piece of metal, inserted in the circuit, which melts when
excessive current flows through it for sufficient time and thus breaks the circuit.”
History:
Invented in 1890 by Edison, fuse is the cheapest form of protection against excessive
currents. Now-a-days, several types of fuses are available which find extensive use in
low to moderate voltage applications where frequent operations are not expected or
where the use of circuit breaker is uneconomical.
Working of Fuse:
It is inserted in series with the circuit to be protected. Under normal operating
conditions, the fuse element is at a temperature below its melting point. Therefore, it
carries the normal current without overheating. However, when a short-circuit or
overload occurs, the current through the fuse increases beyond its rated value. This
raises the temperature and fuse element melts (or blows out), disconnecting the circuit
protected by it. In this way, a fuse protects the machines and equipment from damage.
Fuses are used to protect cables, electrical equipment and semiconductor devices
against overloads / short circuits in low voltage and medium voltage circuits.
2
The time required to blow out the fuse depends upon the magnitude of excessive
current. The greater the current, the smaller is the time taken by the fuse to blow out. In
other words, a fuse has inverse time-current characteristics as shown in Figure. Such
a characteristic permits its use for overcurrent protection.
3
It is the cheapest form of protection available.
It requires no maintenance.
Its operation is inherently completely automatic unlike a circuit breaker which
requires an elaborate equipment for automatic action.
It can break heavy short-circuit currents without noise or smoke.
The inverse time-current characteristic of a fuse makes it suitable for overcurrent
protection.
The minimum time of operation can be made much shorter than with the circuit
breakers.
Considerable time is lost in rewiring or replacing a fuse after operation leading to
interruption of service to the customers. .
4
The function of a fuse is to carry the normal current without overheating but when the
current exceeds its normal value, it rapidly heats up to melting point and disconnects the
circuit protected by it. In order that it may perform this function satisfactorily, the fuse
element should have the following desirable characteristics:
Low melting point e.g., tin, lead.
High conductivity e.g., silver, copper.
Free from deterioration due to oxidation e.g., silver.
Low cost e.g., lead, tin, copper.
The above discussion reveals that no material possesses all the characteristics. For
instance, lead has low melting point but it has high specific resistance and is liable to
oxidation. Similarly, copper has high conductivity and low cost but oxidizes rapidly.
Therefore, a compromise is made in the selection of material for a fuse.
5
The most commonly used materials for fuse element are:
Metal Melting Specific resistance Metal Melting Specific resistance in
point in microhm-cm point microhm-cm
Tin 230 oC 11.2 Aluminum 670 oC 2.85
Lead 328 oC 21.5 Silver 960 oC 1.64
Zinc 419 oC 6.1 copper 1090 oC 1.72
Experience shows that, materials of low melting point like tin, lead and zinc are most
suitable for fuse element. But having low melting point have high specific resistance as
shown in the Table.
For a given current rating, the fuse element made from low melting point of high
specific resistance will have greater diameter and hence, greater mass of the metal than
made from high melting point of low specific resistance.
It means that use of low melting point metals for fuse element introduces the problem
of handling excessive mass of vaporized metal released on fusion. For small values of
current (up to 10A), an alloy of Lead – Tin containing 37% Lead and 63% Tin is used
as an ordinary fuse wire. For currents above 15A, Lead – Tin alloy is not suitable as
diameter of the fuse wire will be large and after fusing, vaporization metal released will
be excessive. 6
For larger currents: silver is suitable for fuse element, because it is not subjected to
oxidation and there is no deterioration of material. But it is costlier.
It is a usual practice to tin the copper to protect it from oxidation. Zinc is good if a
fuse with considerable time-lag is required i.e., one which does not melt very quickly
with a small overload.
The present trend is to use silver despite its high cost due to the following reasons :
It is comparatively free from oxidation.
It does not deteriorate when used in dry air.
The coefficient of expansion of silver is so small that no critical fatigue occurs.
Therefore, the fuse element can carry the rated current continuously for a long time.
The conductivity of silver is very high. Therefore, for a given rating of fuse element,
the mass of silver metal required is smaller than that of other materials.
Due to comparatively low specific heat, silver fusible elements can be raised from
normal temperature to vaporization quicker than other fusible elements. Moreover, the
resistance of silver increases abruptly as the melting temperature is reached, thus
making the transition from melting to vaporization almost instantaneous. Consequently,
operation becomes very much faster at higher currents.
7
The following terms are much used in the analysis of fuses :
It is the current which the fuse element can normally carry without overheating or
melting. It depends upon the temperature rise of the contacts of the fuse holder, fuse
material and the surroundings of the fuse.
It is the minimum current at which the fuse element melts and thus disconnects the
circuit protected by it.
Obviously, its value will be more than the current rating of the fuse element.
For a round wire, the approximate relationship between fusing current I and diameter
d of the wire is given by:
I k d 3/ 2
where k is a constant, called the fuse constant. Its value depends upon the metal of
which the fuse element is made.
8
It is the ratio of minimum fusing current to the current rating of the fuse element i.e.
Minimum fusing current
Fusing Factor
Current rating of fuse
Its value is always more than unity. The smaller the fusing factor, the greater is the
difficulty in avoiding deterioration due to overheating and oxidation at rated carrying
current. For a semi-enclosed or re-wirable fuse which employs copper wire as the fuse
element, the fusing factor is usually 2.
Lower values of fusing factor can be employed for enclosed type cartridge fuses
using silver or bimetallic elements.
The fusing factor is the amount of increase (as a factor) required beyond the current
rating, to operate the fuse. A fusing factor of 1.5 means that the current rating needs to
be exceeded by a factor of 1.5 before the fuse will operate. A 20A fuse will therefore
require 20 x 1.5 = 30A to operate.
The voltage rating of the fuse (given in rms voltage) must be greater than or equal to
the circuit voltage (Typically 10% above the circuit voltage).
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This system gives two letter code to
indicate the fuse type & its characteristics.
The first letter denotes its interrupting capacity:
g means full range breaking capacity
a means partial range breaking capacity
The second letter in CAPS indicates the accuracy of the fuse rating and the type of
protection offered:
G or L means it is used for general applications
M means that it is to be used for the protection of motor circuits
D means there is a time delay.
N means that Utilization category and Operating Typical Installation
there is no time interrupting capacity Characteristics range Applications
delay. gG or gL 1.2 or 1.6 Fsing General purpose
Factor protection
gM Above 1.6 (1.7 to Motor starting and
2.5). short circuit protection
IEC has two categories of time delay fuses:
T = Time lag, opens 10 x rated current within 0.01 seconds to 0.1 seconds.
TT = Long time lag, opens 10 x rated current within 0.1 seconds to 1 second. 10
It can be defined as:
“It is the r.m.s. value of the
first loop of the fault current
obtained if the fuse is
replaced by an ordinary
conductor of negligible
resistance”.
Figure shows how AC
current is cut off by a fuse.
The fault current would normally have a very large first loop, but it actually generates
sufficient energy to melt the fuseable element before the peak of first loop is reached.
Def: “It is the r.m.s. value of AC component of maximum prospective current that a
fuse can deal with at rated service voltage”.
Breaking capacity is the maximum short circuit current a fuse can safely blow
without a catastrophic failure such as a fire, breakage or explosion.
11
Def: “It is the maximum value of fault current actually reached before the fuse
melts”.
On the occurrence of a fault, the fault current has a very large first loop due to a fair
degree of asymmetry. The heat generated is sufficient to melt the fuse element well
before the peak of first loop is reached (point ‘a’ in Figure). The current corresponding
to point ‘a’ is the cut off current.
It may be mentioned here that outstanding feature of fuse action is the breaking of
circuit before the fault current reaches its first peak. This gives the fuse a great
advantage over a circuit breaker since the most severe thermal and electro-magnetic
effects of short-circuit currents (which occur at the peak value of prospective current)
are not experienced with fuses.
Therefore, the circuits protected by fuses can be designed to withstand maximum
current equal to the cut-off value. This consideration together with the relative
cheapness of fuses allows much saving in cost.
12
Def: “It is the time between the commencement of fault and the instant when cut-off
occurs”.
When a fault occurs, the fault current rises rapidly and generates heat in the fuse
element. As the fault current reaches the cut off value, the fuse element melts and an arc
in initiated. The time from the start of the fault to the instant the arc is initiated is known
as pre-arcing time.
The pre-arcing time is generally small: a typical value being 0·001second.
Def: “This is the time between the end of pre-arcing time and the instant when the arc
is extinguished”.
Def: “It is the sum of pre-arcing and arcing times”.
It may be noted that operating time of a fuse is generally quite low (say 0·002 sec.) as
compared to a circuit breaker (say 0·2 sec or so). This is an added advantage of a fuse
over a circuit breaker.
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The current carrying capacity of a fuse element mainly depends on
Metal used, Cross sectional area
Length, State of surface and the surroundings of the fuse.
When the fuse element attains steady temperature,
Heat produced per sec = Heat lost per second by convection, radiation & conduction
or I2R = Constant × Effective surface area
l
I
2
d l × Constant
a
2 l
I d l × Constant
2
( / 4) d
I 2 = Constant × d 3
I k d 3/ 2
Where K is a constant.
This is known as ordinary Fuse law given by William Henry Preece. 15
A current of 6A fuses a lead fuse element diameter of 0.0195 inch. What current will
fuse a wire of 0.0392 inch?
According to fuse law
I d 32
I1 (d1 )3 / 2
I2 (d 2 )3 / 2
As I1 6 A
d1 0.0195 inch
d 2 0.0392 inch
6 (0.0195)3 / 2
I2 (0.0392)3 / 2
I 2 6 2.8502 17.101 A 16
Follwing are the main types of fuse
Rewireable fuse
High rupturing capacity (H.R.C.) cartridge
fuse or Totally enclosed fuse.
Rewireable fuse (also known as kit-kat type) is used where low values of fault
current are to be interrupted. This kind of fuse is most commonly used in the case of
domestic wiring and small scale usage.
It consists of a base and a fuse carrier.
The base is of porcelain and carries the fixed contacts to which the incoming and
outgoing phase wires are connected.
The fuse carrier is also of porcelain and holds the fuse element (tinned copper wire)
between its terminals. The fuse carrier can be inserted in or taken out of the base when
desired.
When a fault occurs, the fuse element is blown out and the circuit is interrupted. The
fuse carrier is taken out and the blown out fuse element is replaced by the new one. The
fuse carrier is then reinserted in the base to restore the supply. 17
The detachable fuse carrier permits the replacement of fuse element without any
danger of coming in contact with live parts.
The cost of replacement is negligible.
There is a possibility of renewal by the fuse wire of wrong size or improper material.
This type of fuse has a low-breaking capacity and hence cannot be used in circuits of
high fault level.
The fuse element is subjected to deterioration due to oxidation through the continuous
heating up of the element. Therefore, after some time, the current rating of the fuse is
decreased i.e., the fuse operates at a lower current than originally rated.
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The primary objection of low and uncertain breaking capacity of semi-enclosed
rewireable fuses is overcome in H.R.C. cartridge fuse.
Figure shows the essential parts of a typical H.R.C. cartridge fuse. It consists of a
heat resisting ceramic body having metal end-caps to which is welded silver current-
carrying element. The space within the body surrounding the element is completely
packed with a filling powder. The filling material may be chalk, plaster of paris, or
marble dust and acts as an arc quenching and cooling medium.
Under normal load conditions, the fuse element is at a temperature below its melting
point. Therefore, it carries the normal current without overheating.
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When a fault occurs, the current increases and the fuse element melts before the fault
current reaches its first peak. The heat produced in the process vapourises the melted
silver element. The chemical reaction between the silver vapour and the filling powder
results in the formation of a high resistance substance which helps in quenching the arc.
They are capable of clearing high as well as low fault currents.
They do not deteriorate with age.
They have high speed of operation.
They require no maintenance.
They are cheaper than other circuit interrupting devices of equal breaking capacity.
They have to be replaced after each operation.
Heat produced by the arc may affect the associated switches.
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[Link] Particular Fuse Circuit Breaker
1 Function It performs both detection It performs interruption function
and interruption functions. only. The detection of fault is
made by relay system.
2 Operating Very small (0.002 seconds Comparatively large (0.1 to 0.2
time or so.) seconds).
3 Replacement Requires replacement after No replacement after operation.
every operation.
4 Initial cost Low High
5 Maintenance No Yes
cost
21
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Following points should be considered while selecting a fuse:
It should be able to withstand momentary over-current due to starting motor and
transient current surges due to switching on transformers, capacitors and fluorescent
lighting, etc.
Its selection should depend upon the nature of load. From protection point of view,
electric circuits are classified as:
Steady load circuits: Load does not fluctuate much form its normal value (resistive
loads). If both OL & SC protection of these circuits is required, fuses having a current
rating equal to or a little higher than the load current are selected.
Fluctuating load circuits: Due to wide fluctuations of load and peaks of a
comparatively short duration, occur during starting or switching on. Motors,
transformers, capacitors and fluorescent lamps are examples of loads. Therefore main
criterion is that fuse should not blow under transient overloads.
23
A motor draws about 6 times the normal full load current, when it is started on load.
The fuse, which is there to protect the motor under short circuit conditions, must allow
this high in-rush current, of the motor, to pass.
Consider a motor whose full load current is 6 amperes and the motor takes 1.0 second
to accelerate to its normal running speed.
Motor starting current = 6 x IFL = 6 x 6 = 36-amperes
Motor acceleration time = 1 second.
Assume that a 6 A fuse is selected from Figure (Next Slide). For a 6 A fuse at a 36 A
fault current, it will take 0.15 seconds to blow.
Since the motor takes 1.0 second to accelerate, the fuse will blow before the motor
has fully accelerated.
However, if a 15 A fuse is selected, at a fault current of 36 A, the 15 A fuse would
take about 2 seconds to blow. Therefore, the motor would have sufficient time to
accelerate to its rated speed. Using this 15 A fuse, the motor can accelerate to its
operational speed without blowing the fuse.
24
25
A 415 V distribution system is shown in Figure below. Select the suitable rating of
fuse for each load and incoming circuit using fuse time-current characteristic in Figure
(next slide)
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27
28
Fuse Selection for Lighting Load:
20kW
I lighting 27.8 A
3 415V
From the Graph, for 27.8 A, a fuse of 32A will be suitable.
Fuse Selection for Heating Load:
30kW
I heating 41.7 A
3 415V
From the Graph, for 41.7 A, a fuse of 50 A will be suitable.
29
Fuse Selection for Motor Load:
Motor load:
Pout
30 kW
Pin 32.6 kW
0.92
The motor full load current is
32.6kW
I motor 54.7 A
3 415V 0.83
The starting current for 10 seconds is 7 time than the full load current, therefore
I 7 54.7 383A
From the time-current curve, an 80 A fuse would withstand 383 A for only 6
seconds. Therefore, for a 100 A fuse, which would withstand 383 A for longer than
10 seconds, would be necessary.
30
Fuse Selection for Incoming Circuit:
To provide discrimination the fuse at incoming circuit must meet the following
requirements:
It must carry the normal load current:
I 27.8 41.7 54.7 124.2A
It must carry the load + the starting current of the motor
I 27.8 41.7 383 452.5A for 10 s
From time-current curve, a 125 A fuse would withstand 452.5 A for more than 10 s.
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