Reduced Order Model of the Mechanical Dynamics of the Operating Mechanism in a Molded Case Circuit Breaker using MATLAB

One of the significant trends in mobility in recent years is electrification with the development and commercialization of EVs. Thus, the electrical grids supplying electricity from generating stations to EVs have also become important from the mobility perspective. The protection and safety of the electrical grid is an important consideration, and circuit breakers play a crucial role. The mechanical dynamics of the circuit breaker play a vital role in achieving the desired protective function of the circuit breaker. In the present work, a reduced-order model of the mechanical dynamics of the circuit breaker is developed in MATLAB. The sensitivity analysis is conducted to enhance the model's accuracy, and the results are compared with a detailed 3D multibody dynamic model in ADAMS. It is found that the results of the reduced order dynamic model in MATLAB agree well with the detailed 3D multibody dynamic model. Keywords: System Dynamic Modeling, Reduced Order Dynamic Modeling, Molded Case Circuit Breakers, Operating Mechanism