Iranian Journal of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Circuit Breakers (CBs) are critical components in power system for reliability and protection. To assure their accurate performance, a comprehensive condition assessment is of an imminent importance. Based on dynamic resistance measurement (DRM), this paper discusses a simple yet effective fuzzy approach for evaluating CB’s electrical contacts condition. According to 300 test results obtained from healthy and three defected electrical contacts, the authors describe the special effect of common failures on DRM characteristics and propose seven deterioration indicators. Using these parameters, a fuzzy classifier is suggested to accurately determine contact sets condition. The salient advantage of the proposed model is its capability to recognize the type of contact failure. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed scheme has been validated through 40 real life recorded data of some electrical contacts.