Investigate and Develop an Analytical Approach to Automatically Mitigate Electrical Faults Caused by Battle Damage

Electrical faults in the shipboard power system can result in the loss of power to critical loads of the system because today’s electrical systems protection devices cannot clear faults in less than a cycle or two. The result is that very high current flow in the system. In this Phase I SBIR, we propose to develop an initial concept to limit the fault current magnitude by interrupting the current in less than 100 µs from onset of fault. To accomplish this we propose to use a fast opening mechanical contactor with solid-state switches in parallel. The fast opening mechanical contactor is actuated by magnetic forces and can interrupt fault current in 100 µs. This concept was proven at the 440 V system level, and we are proposing to extend it to the medium voltage level. The successful development of this technology will provide revolutionary new capability in system protection and load survivability.