An Optimum Design of a Gas Circuit Breaker Using Design of Experiments

In this study, a gas circuit breaker (GCB) used to interrupt or apply an electric current in a high-voltage system is optimized using design of experiments. A multibody dynamic simulation model of the GCB is created and the performance of the system is optimized according to the optimization procedure presented in this paper. Sensitivity analysis is performed on the basis of a Plackett–Burman design table. Then, through the response surface analysis, the objective function is estimated and the reliability of the function is verified by an analysis of variance table. Using the sequential quadratic programming method, the values of design parameters that minimize the objective function and satisfy the constraint conditions are obtained. The performance of the current and optimized system is compared and by conducting an actual test of the GCB, the reliability of the simulation model and the usefulness of the optimal design method presented are verified.