Passive electronic fuse for protecting a DC application

Abstract

A passive electronic fuse for protecting a DC application in the event of a fault includes a first leg including a first winding of a mutual inductor and a switch device connected in series, a second leg including a second winding of the mutual inductor. The first leg and the second leg are connected in parallel and a self-inductance of the second winding is lower than a self-inductance of the first winding. The second leg further includes a capacitor connected in series with the second winding of the mutual inductor, and the switch device is a thyristor or a switch device with switching properties of a thyristor.

Claims

1. A passive electronic fuse for protecting a DC application in the event of a fault, the electronic fuse comprising: a first leg comprising a first winding of a mutual inductor and a switch device connected in series; and a second leg comprising a second winding of the mutual inductor, wherein the first leg and the second leg are connected in parallel and a self-inductance of the second winding is lower than a self-inductance of the first winding, wherein the second leg further comprises a capacitor connected in series with the second winding of the mutual inductor, and wherein the switch device is a thyristor or a switch device with switching properties of a thyristor.

2. The passive electronic fuse according to claim 1, wherein the self-inductance of the second winding constitutes less than 30% of the self-inductance of the first winding.

3. The passive electronic fuse according to claim 1, wherein the electronic fuse comprises means for triggering a gate of the thyristor, and the thyristor is a gate turn- on thyristor, wherein the means for triggering the gate of the thyristor is adapted to emit a pulse to the gate for triggering conduction of the thyristor.

4. The passive electronic fuse according to claim 1, wherein the electronic fuse comprises means for triggering a gate of the thyristor, and the thyristor is at least one of a gate turn- off thyristor and a gate-commutated thyristor wherein the means for triggering the gate of the thyristor is adapted to emit a pulse to the gate for turning off conduction of the thyristor.

5. The passive electronic fuse according to claim 1, wherein the electronic fuse further comprises a third leg comprising an overvoltage protection circuit.

6. The passive electronic fuse according to claim 5, wherein the third leg is connected in parallel to the first leg and the second leg.

7. The passive electronic fuse according to claim 5, wherein the overvoltage protection circuit comprises a first snubber.

8. The passive electronic fuse according to claim 1, wherein a second snubber is connected in parallel to the first winding of the mutual inductor.

9. The passive electronic fuse according to claim 1, wherein the electronic fuse further comprises a third snubber connected in parallel to the first winding of the thyristor.

10. The passive electronic fuse according to claim 1, wherein the electronic fuse further comprises a fourth snubber connected in parallel to the capacitor.

11. The passive electronic fuse according to claim 7, wherein at least one of the first snubber, the second snubber, the third snubber and the fourth snubber is a varistor, a resistor capacitor snubber, a resistor capacitor diod snubber, a resistor diode snubber, or a capacitor.

12. The passive electronic fuse according to claim 1, wherein the capacitor of the second leg is an electrolytic capacitor.

13. The passive electronic fuse according to claim 1, wherein the mutual inductor comprises an air core or a core of a magnetic material or a non-magnetic material.

14. An electrical power system for a hybrid or pure electric vehicle, comprising: a power delivery unit; a discharge circuit; and the passive electronic fuse according to claim 1.

15. An electric energy storage system for storing electrical energy, comprising: series, and optionally parallel, connected electro-chemical battery cells; a power conversion device; and one or more of the passive electronic fuses according to claim 1.

16. The passive electronic fuse according to claim 1, wherein the self-inductance of the second winding constitutes less than 15% of the self-inductance of the first winding.

17. The passive electronic fuse according to claim 2, wherein the electronic fuse comprises means for triggering a gate of the thyristor, and the thyristor is a gate turn- on thyristor, wherein the means for triggering the gate of the thyristor is adapted to emit a pulse to the gate for triggering conduction of the thyristor.

18. The passive electronic fuse according to claim 2, wherein the electronic fuse comprises means for triggering a gate of the thyristor, and the thyristor is at least one of a gate turn- off thyristor and a gate-commutated thyristor wherein the means for triggering the gate of the thyristor is adapted to emit a pulse to the gate for turning off conduction of the thyristor.

19. The passive electronic fuse according to claim 3, wherein the electronic fuse comprises means for triggering a gate of the thyristor, and the thyristor is at least one of a gate turn- off thyristor and a gate-commutated thyristor wherein the means for triggering the gate of the thyristor is adapted to emit a pulse to the gate for turning off conduction of the thyristor.

20. The passive electronic fuse according to claim 2, wherein the electronic fuse further comprises a third leg comprising an overvoltage protection circuit.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The invention will now be explained more closely by the description of different embodiments of the invention and with reference to the appended figures.

(2) FIG. 1 shows an example of a passive electronic fuse according to a first embodiment of the invention.

(3) FIG. 2 shows an example of a passive electronic fuse according to a second embodiment of the invention.

(4) FIG. 3 shows an example of current and voltage in the event of a fault when the passive electronic fuse of the invention is lacking.

(5) FIG. 4 shows an example of current and voltage in the event of a fault when the passive electronic fuse of the invention is installed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

(6) FIG. 1 shows an example of a passive electronic fuse 1 according to a first embodiment of the invention. The electronic fuse 1 is adapted to be connected between the output of a DC energy source 3 and the load of a DC application 5. The DC energy source 3 may alternatively be a rectifier or similar non-constant DC source.

(7) The electronic fuse 1 comprises a first leg 10 and a second leg 12 and a mutual inductor 14 between the first leg 10 and the second leg 12. The first leg 10 and the second leg 12 are connected in parallel.

(8) The first leg 10 comprises a first winding 20 of the mutual inductor 14, and switch device in the form of a thyristor 22 or switch device with switching properties of a thyristor.

(9) The second leg 12 comprises a second winding 24 of the mutual inductor 14, and a capacitor 26.

(10) The mutual inductor 14 further comprises a core 15, such as an air core or a core of a magnetic material or a non-magnetic material.

(11) The mutual inductor 14 is arranged so that a self-inductance of the second winding 24 is lower than a self-inductance of the first winding 20. The mutual inductor 14 has the intrinsic property to conserve the magnetic flux between the first winding 20 and the second winding 24. Thereby, at a rapid increase of the current, in order to conserve the magnetic flux, the current through the second winding 24 will increase while the current through the first winding 20 will decrease. This trend will continue until the current through the first winding 20 falls to zero and thereafter trying to form a reversed current through the first leg 10.

(12) The thyristor 22 in the first leg 10 is configured to discontinue being conductive when receiving a reversed current. Accordingly, the reversed current will trigger the thyristor 22 to discontinue being conductive.

(13) When the thyristor 22 has stopped being conductive, all current will pass through the second leg 12 and the capacitor 26 will be charged. When the capacitor 26 has been fully charged, the capacitor 26 will act as an isolator and no current can pass through the second leg 12. Accordingly, at this stage no current can pass through both the first leg 10 and the second leg 12. Hence, the electronic fuse 1 has disconnected the connection to the DC application 5.

(14) Preferably, the self-inductance of the second winding 24 of the mutual inductance 14 constitutes less than 30% of the self-inductance of the first winding 20, more preferable less than 15% of the self-inductance of the first winding 20. A large difference between the self-inductance of the first winding 20 and the second winding 24 has the effect that it will take less time for the current in the first leg 10 to sink and accordingly less time before the thyristor 22 will stop being conductive. Accordingly, the electronic fuse 1 has the ability to quickly interrupt the current to the DC application 5.

(15) The electronic fuse 1 further comprises means 35 for triggering a gate of the thyristor 22, which is adapted to emit a pulse to the gate of the thyistor 22.

(16) According to one embodiment of the invention, the thyristor 22 is a gate turn-on thyristor, and the pulse that is emitted to the gate of the thyristor triggers the conduction of the thyristor 22. After that the electronic fuse 1 has interrupted the current, the electronic fuse 1 is restarted by emitting the pulse to the gate of the thyistor 22.

(17) According to another embodiment of the invention, the thyristor 22 is one of a gate turn-off thyristor and a gate-commutated thyristor. The emitted pulse is triggering the thyristor 22 to discontinue being conductive. The gate turn-off thyristor and a gate-commutated thyristor provide the ability to manually interrupt the current to the DC application 5.

(18) FIG. 2 shows an example of a passive electronic fuse 1 according to a second embodiment of the invention.

(19) The electronic fuse 1 differs from the first embodiment in that the electronic fuse 1 comprises a third leg 40 comprising an overvoltage protection circuit. The third leg 40 is connected in parallel to the first leg 10 and the second leg 12. The overvoltage protection circuit 40 comprises a first snubber 42.

(20) The electronic fuse 1 further differs from the first embodiment in that the electronic fuse 1 comprises a second snubber 44, a third snubber 46, and a fourth snubber 48.

(21) The second snubber 44 is connected in parallel to the first winding 20 of mutual inductor 14. The third snubber 46 is connected in parallel to the thyristor 22 of the first leg 10. The fourth snubber 48 is connected in parallel to the capacitor 26 of the second leg 12.

(22) Any of the first snubber 42, the second snubber 44, the third snubber 46 and the fourth snubber 48 may be a varistor, a resistor capacitor snubber, a resistor capacitor diod snubber, or a capacitor. In FIG. 2 the first snubber 42, the third snubber 46 and the fourth snubber 48 are varistors, and the second snubber 44 is a resistor capacitor diod snubber.

(23) FIG. 3 shows an example of the current and voltage in a DC system without a passive electronic fuse 1. The system voltage is 900 V and the nominal current is 300 A. As a fault is applied at t=0.2 s, the current starts to increase rapidly and cannot be limited. The current of the first leg (I.sub.Thyr) and the second leg (I.sub.s) quickly reaches a steady state level above 40 kA.

(24) FIG. 4 shows the same system as in FIG. 3, where the system has been equipped with the passive electronic fuse 1. When the fault is applied at t=0.2 s, the system current rushes into the second winding 24 due to its lower self-inductance. This increased current I.sub.s in the second winding produces an increase in magnetic flux also in the first winding 20. Hence, the current in the first winding I.sub.Thyr will decrease to prevent the increase of magnetic flux. As the current I.sub.Thyr in the first winding 20 reaches zero, the thyristor 22 returns to blocking mode. The full current is now conducted by the second winding 24 and the voltage across the capacitor 26 increases. Some oscillations occur between the system inductance and the capacitor 26 but the current I.sub.s never exceeds 2 kA. The current settles at zero and the thyristor voltage U.sub.Thyr becomes equal to the system voltage. The electronic fuse 1 now prevents any current flow by blocking the system voltage by both the thyristor 22 and the capacitor 26.

(25) The present invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments but may be modified within the framework of the claims.