Mass effect analysis of a coil spring for the performance evaluation of a gas insulated circuit breaker

Since the performance of a circuit breaker which has the spring operating mechanism mainly depends on the dynamic behavior of a coil spring, the analysis of the dynamic behavior of a coil spring is required for a performance evaluation of a circuit breaker. When a spring moves so fast from the releasing state, a lot of energy is used to move a self-weight of a spring. Thus, the mass effect analysis of a spring operating mechanism is required for the performance evaluation of a circuit breaker accurately. In this study, a release test bed is designed for evaluating the dynamic behaviors of a coil spring. Three types of spring models such as a linear spring model, a nodal spring model and a lumped parameter spring model are established for comparing the modeling error of a spring due to the mass effect. RecurDyn is employed to carry out the computer simulation and results are compared with test results. The actual energy transferred to the follower during high-speed motion is analyzed through the comparisons of the kinetic energy between the experiment and the computer simulation.