12CSER058 - Modeling DC circuit-breakers for long-distance electricity transmission
| Project number | 12CSER058 |
| Project title | Modeling DC circuit-breakers for long-distance electricity transmission |
| Applicant(s) | Prof.dr. W.H. Hundsdorfer, Prof.dr. U.M. Ebert |
| Abstract | When electric power is transmitted over long distances on conventional 50 Hz high voltage nets, much energy is lost in dissipation. A promising technology is DC transmission. A bottleneck in such new high voltage direct current (HVDC) nets are switches and circuit-breakers. Present simulation models, as used by ABB Corporate Research, are satisfactory for conventional breakers. However, for DC nets with very high voltages, new physical descriptions and computational models are needed. The CWI group has recently made a number of break-throughs in the microscopic modeling of electric discharges with Monte Carlo particle models down to the molecular level. This allows accurate simulation of the physics without phenomological parameter fitting. Within the proposed project, we will combine a Monte Carlo description for the initial arc formation and electric break-down in the circuit breaker with fluid descriptions for the interaction with the surrounding gas or liquid and the mechanical switching process, as modeled by ABB. This simulation tool will allow for easy investigation of various filling media of the switches, ranging from the conventional SF6 gas to (supercritical) fluids at high pressures. The major computational challenges in the project arise from combining the microscopic and the macroscopic levels of the dynamics, as well as the widely varying length scales. |
| Project budget | k€ 256 (includes 1 PhD student and material budget) |
| Duration | 2013 - 2017 |