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fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPWRD.2018.2890697, IEEE
Transactions on Power Delivery
Calculation of Molten and Broken Characteristics
of ACSR Strands due to AC Fault Arcs
Mikimasa Iwata, Senior Member, IEEE, Toshiya Ohtaka, Member, IEEE, and
Yutaka Goda, Senior Member, IEEE
 capacity. ACSR is mainly used in the lower transmission
Abstract--Some of the strands of ACSR (Aluminum Conductor
Steel Reinforced) are sometimes molten and broken by arc
discharges owing to short-circuit faults of overhead transmission
lines. AC arc tests have been carried out to clarify the molten and
broken characteristics of ACSR strands. A lot of arc tests have to
be carried out because there are many combinations of test
conditions regarding the arc and ACSR (e.g., arc current and
duration, size of conductor and strand). This paper describes the
molten and broken characteristics of strands, which are
calculated taking into account of the heat transfer and its area
from the arc to the strands under the above-mentioned conditions.
The influence of the arc current (1 – 50 kA) on the molten and
broken duration of all ACSR strands is calculated for ACSR of
160 mm2, 330 mm2, and 610 mm2 used in 66/77 kV overhead
transmission lines. The calculation results agree approximately
with the AC arc test results. Furthermore, supposing that the
calculation results will be used to assist the
inspection/maintenance systems of utility companies, the molten
and broken characteristics of some of the strands of ACSR are
also calculated.
Index Terms—Arc discharges, ACSR strands, molten and
broken, power transmission lines, short-circuit faults
I. INTRODUCTION
P HASE-to-phase flashover and short-circuit faults of
overhead power transmission lines can be caused by the
galloping of ice/snow-coated power-line conductors due to
wind [1]-[4] or by the jumping of power-line conductors due
to ice/snow shedding from the conductors [5][6]. The short-
circuit faults lead to the generation of AC arc discharges
between power-line conductors. Some of the strands of the
conductors are sometimes molten and broken by the arcs, and
in some cases, all strands of the conductors are molten and
broken, resulting in extended power interruption. Although
phase-to-ground faults can be caused by lightning, the faults
are not taken into account in this paper because the faults will
not generate high current arc discharges on the power-line
conductors of overhead power transmission lines.
The overhead power transmission lines mainly used are
HDCC (Hard-Drawn Copper Conductor), ACSR (Aluminum
Conductor Steel Reinforced), and TACSR (Thermal-resistant
Aluminum alloy Conductor Steel Reinforced). TACSR has
been used in recent years because of its high transmission
M. Iwata, T. Ohtaka, and Y. Goda are with the Central Research Institute
of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI), Yokosuka 240-0196, Japan. (e-mail: m-
iwata@criepi.denken.or.jp)
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1
voltage classes of 22/33 kV and 66/77 kV in Japan. The
conductors are mainly used as bundled conductors for
transmission lines with higher voltages exceeding 66/77 kV
and as single conductors for transmission lines of up to 66/77
kV. The length of transmission lines of up to 66/77 kV
accounts for 60 % of the total length of transmission lines in
Japan. These circumstances can lead to the result that the
number of broken faults of conductor strands up to 66/77 kV is
higher than for voltages exceeding 66/77 kV. Therefore, the
conductor investigated in this paper is ACSR, which is mainly
used in transmission lines of up to 66/77 kV.
To obtain the molten and broken characteristics of ACSR
strands, AC arc tests have been carried out [7]-[9]. However,
the range of testing conditions has been limited owing to the
capability of the test facilities. Performing AC arc tests under
conditions involving many combinations of test conditions
regarding the arc and ACSR (arc current and duration, size of
conductor and strand, etc.) would require considerable effort
and cost. Therefore, it is desired to develop a method of
calculating the molten and broken characteristics of ACSR
strands. The authors have proposed a calculation method for
molten and broken characteristics of ACSR strands,
considering the conditions of the arc and ACSR [10].
This paper firstly describes the procedure of AC arc tests
and the developed method for calculations. By using the
method for calculations, the influence of the arc current on the
molten and broken duration of all ACSR strands is obtained
for ACSR of 160 mm2, 330 mm2, and 610 mm2 used in 66/77
kV overhead transmission lines. The calculation results agree
well with the AC arc test results. Furthermore, supposing that
the calculation results will be used to assist the
inspection/maintenance systems of utility companies, the
molten and broken characteristics of some of the strands of
ACSR are also calculated.
II. AC ARC TESTS PROCEDURE
This chapter summarizes AC arc tests procedure [8][9]. An
arrangement for AC arc tests in open air is shown in Fig. 1. A
thin metal wire is set between an ACSR and a counter
electrode, which is installed above the ACSR. The gap length
Lgap between the iron counter bar electrode and the ACSR is
50 mm. The length of the ACSR is 4 m. Actually, when a
phase-to-phase flashover occurs between ACSRs, the counter
electrode of an ACSR is the another ACSR. In this case, the
material of the counter electrode is aluminum because the
material of the outer strands of ACSR is aluminum. However,
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2

Fig. 1. Arrangement for AC arc testing [8][9].

the material of the counter electrode was iron in the arc tests
[8][9]. The selection of the electrode material seems to be due Fig. 2. Flowchart for calculation [10].
to an easiness of performing arc tests. The aluminum electrode
is easy to be molten because of its lower melting point, and
therefore it is thought that the gap length Lgap between the
counter electrode and the ACSR increases and the arc becomes
unstable. An arc is generated when the test current flows in the
thin metal wire and the wire is molten and evaporated. The
ACSR is set with a tensile force of 20 % of UTS (Ultimate
Tensile Strength; see Table I) approximately equal to that
applied when stretching in actual transmission lines. For
example, the tensile force was 21.4 kN for ACSR of 330 mm2
[9].
An arc on the ACSR easily moves along the ACSR because
of the electro-magnetic effect produced by the arc current and
the current flowing through the ACSR. Therefore, in order to
suppress the arc movement, two conductor wires are set
symmetrically to both ends of the ACSR and the arc current is Fig. 3. Structure of cross-section of ACSR of 330 mm2.
diverted approximately equally to the two directions of the
earth side. This method can lead the most severe evaluation of
the molten and broken characteristics of ACSR strands shows the flowchart for calculating the number of ACSR
because the heat transfer from the arc to the ACSR is strands broken by an AC arc. The quantity of heat and its area
concentrated on a part of the ACSR, which is a possible transferred from the arc to the ACSR are calculated by means
condition in the actual transmission lines. The single-phase AC of the arc conditions and the ACSR conditions. The detail
test current is supplied using a high power short-circuit calculation method is described in the following sections A
generator (15 kV, 2500 MVA), reactors, and a high voltage and B. In the calculations, it is assumed that a strand of ACSR
transformer. According to [8][9], the time to break all the is broken when the entire cross section of the strand is wholly
strands of ACSR was estimated by measuring the time when molten, even though the length of the part along the ACSR
the tensile force of the ACSR decreased rapidly during the arc axis is quite short. This is because the molten part of the strand
tests. will be blown off by arc jets spouted from a foot of arc on the
ACSR strands.
III. CALCULATION PROCEDURE AND CONDITIONS The maximum value of the arc current in the calculations is
40 kA because the voltage class focused on in this paper is up
The calculations in this paper are performed using our to 66/77 kV. The transient DC component of the arc current is
previously developed procedure reported in [10]. This chapter assumed to be zero because the arc is supposed to be
describes the calculation procedure and conditions. Fig. 2

TABLE I
CONFIGURATION OF STRANDS FOR ACSR OF 160 MM2, 330 MM2, AND 610 MM2

Ultimate Tensile Layer *

Overall
ACSR Strength (UTS)
diameter (mm) 1st (outer) 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
(kN)
160 mm2 18.2 68.4 Al/18/2.6 Al/12/2.6 St/6/2.6 St/1/2.6 -
330 mm2 25.3 107.2 Al/16/4.0 Al/10/4.0 St/6/3.1 St/1/3.1 -
610 mm2 34.2 180.0 Al/24/3.8 Al/18/3.8 Al/12/3.8 St/6/3.8 St/1/3.8
* Symbols and numbers represent “Material / Number / Diameter (mm)” of the strands of the layer, and “Al” and “St” means aluminum and steel, respectively.

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generated by the flashover between the power-line conductors,
which occurs when the voltage between the conductors
becomes close to the peak value. The gap length is 50 mm,
which is the same as that in the arc tests.
The size of the ACSR used for 66/77 kV overhead
transmission lines is 64 – 810 mm2, and ACSR of 120 – 610
mm2 is mainly used. In this paper, the calculations are
performed for ACSR of 160 mm2, 330 mm2, and 610 mm2. As
an example, the structure of ACSR of 330 mm2 is shown in Fig.
3. There are seven two-layer steel strands in the central area
and 26 two-layer aluminum strands in the outer area of the
ACSR. Table I shows the configuration of strands for the
ACSR investigated in this paper. Symbols and numbers of
each layer show the information regarding the strands of
ACSR. For example, in the case of ACSR of 330 mm2 shown
in Fig. 3, the material of the 1st (outer) layer strands is
aluminum and the 1st layer has 16 strands with a diameter of
4.0 mm. In this case, “Al/16/4.0” is shown as the information
of the 1st layer strands in Table I. In the calculations, it is
assumed that the material of the central strands is iron instead
of steel of actual material because iron is a main component of
steel and the thermal and physical properties of iron are easily
acquired from some references.
A. Heat Transferred from Arc to ACSR
The total heat Ptotal transferred from the AC arc to the ACSR
is calculated using the following equation:
Ptotal = Pele + Pconv , (1)
where Pele is the heat transferred by electrons emission from
the ACSR and by the electrons absorption into the ACSR. Pconv
is the heat transferred by convection owing to the arc jet
spouted from the upper counter electrode. For reference, the
radiation heat Prad released from the molten iron and aluminum
of ACSR strands is calculated as a black body. As a result, Prad
is around 0.02 – 0.3 % of Ptotal, therefore Prad is neglected in
this paper.
1) Heat Owing to Electrons Pele: Pele depends on the polarity
of electrode as follows [11].
In the case of an anode,
Pele = (Va + Vw + VT ) ∙ iac (t) = Vele ∙ iac (t).
In the case of a cathode,
Pele = (Vc - Vw - VT ) ∙ iac (t) = Vele ∙ iac (t), (3)
where Va and Vc are the anode-arc-fall and cathode-arc-fall
voltages, respectively, Vw is the work function of the electrode,
and iac (t) is the instantaneous value of the arc current, which
changes in a sinusoidal function of time t. VT is the voltage
caused by the electrons drift, and is calculated using the
following equation [11] obtained considering Boltzmann’s
VOLTAGES ASSOCIATED WITH THE HEAT CAUSED BY ELECTRONS (SURROUNDING GAS: AIR) [12]
Vc (V)
Aluminum 12.9
Iron 16.6
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constant k and the electronic charge value e:
VT = (3/2) ∙ (k ∙ Tarc /e) = (1.29×10-4) ∙ Tarc , (4)
where Tarc is the absolute temperature of the arc close to the
electrode.
The voltages Vc, Va, Vw, and VT change depending on the
material of electrode and the gas surrounding the arc. These
voltages used in this paper are the values for the materials of
electrode iron and aluminum with air as the gas surrounding
the arc. This is because the ACSR strand used in this paper
comprises iron and aluminum as described above, and because
the AC arc tests are carried out in open air. Table II shows the
voltages used in this paper. VT is calculated using (4), where
the temperature of the arc Tarc is obtained considering the
dependence on the arc current and the material of electrode
[13][14]. Although Vele is nearly constant as shown in Table II,
Pele changes over time because of the time dependence of iac (t).
2) Convective Heat Transfer Pconv: When performing AC arc
tests, as described in Fig. 1, an arc is generated between the
counter electrode and the ACSR. The arc can produce arc jets
spouted from the counter electrode. The arc jets have gas
flows with high temperature and high velocity. The convective
heat transferred from the arc jets to the ACSR is calculated
using
Pconv = h ∙ Ah ∙ (Tarc - TACSR) , (5)
where h is coefficient of the heat transfer and TACSR is the
temperature of the ACSR surface. Ah is the area of heat
transfer, and the estimation method for the area is described
later in section III.B. In the same way as [12], h is calculated
using the Nusselt number, the thermal conductivity of the
flowing gas, and the outer diameter of ACSR. h depends on
the arc current and the calculated value of h is around 500 –
6,500 W/m2/K in this paper. Before AC arc tests TACSR is room
temperature (300 K), and during the arc tests the ACSR can
reach close to the melting point of 1809 K [15] for iron and
933 K [15] for aluminum. Pconv for the room temperature in
TACSR is larger by around 5 – 18 % than that for the melting
point. Although TACSR changes during the arc tests, in this
paper, TACSR is set 300 K to estimate the maximum value of
(2) Pconv. In the calculations, the material of the counter electrode
is iron the same as the material in the arc tests as described in
chapter II. For reference, the convective heat transfer Pconv for
iron counter electrode is approximately 5 % higher than that
for aluminum electrode.
3) Total Heat Transferred from Arc to ACSR Ptotal: In the
above (2) – (5), the arc current iac (t) changes over time, and
accordingly, Tarc, h, and Ah also change. Therefore, the total
heat Ptotal estimated using (1) changes over time with iac (t) as a
TABLE II
Vele (V)
Va (V) Vw (V) VT (V)
Anode Cathode
0.1 4.3 1.3 – 1.6 5.7 – 6.0 7.0 – 7.3
0 4.5 1.3 – 1.8 5.8 – 6.3 10.3 – 10.8
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4

parameter. The method used considering the time dependence

of Ptotal is described later in section IV.A. In the calculations,
as mentioned above, the maximum value of the arc current is
40 kA (r.m.s. value). Thus, the maximum peak value of the arc
current is about 57 kA because the transient DC component of
the current is assumed to be zero. To cover the maximum peak
value, the maximum value of the instantaneous arc current
iac(t) is set to 100 kA in the calculations. As described later in
section III.B, Ah depends on the arc current r.m.s. value of the
IAC and the material of ACSR strands. As indicated by (2) and
(3), Pele depends on the polarity of ACSR. Table II shows that
Pele for the cathode is larger than that for the anode. In this
paper, the arc duration is assumed to be a multiple of the half Fig. 4. Simplified structure of cross-section of ACSR of 330 mm2.
cycle of the arc current, i.e., 10 ms for 50 Hz, and it is
assumed that the duration for the ACSR cathode is 10 ms
longer than that for the ACSR anode to investigate the case
where the ACSR receives more heat from the arc, particularly
when the duration is quite short. In this paper, the energy
transferred from the arc to the ACSR is calculated in each 10
ms by time-integrating the total heat power. It is assumed that
a strand, a part of the ACSR, is molten due to the calculated
energy. The calculation method of the molten volume of the (a)
strand is described later in sections III.C and III.D. The
temperature of the strand is assumed homogeneous because the
Biot number, which is calculated using the coefficient of the
heat transfer h described above, the thermal conductivity and
the thickness of the strand, is around 0.01 - 0.1 in this paper.
B. Heat Transfer Area from Arc to ACSR
Although the transferred heat area Ah changes over time (b)
with the arc current iac (t) as a parameter, the actual transient Fig. 5. Pictures of ACSR of 810 mm2 after arc tests.
change in Ah is not clear. Therefore, to simplify the calculation, (a) 15.3 kA (DC), 0.073 s. (b) 15.1 kA (DC), 0.121 s. [17]
the value of Ah for Ptotal is estimated using the following
equation:
were molten. According to a reference [17], the number of
2  I AC
Ah  , (6) molten and broken ACSR strands for AC arcs is somewhat
J more than or almost the same as that for DC arcs. And, the
where J is the current density on the ACSR. J is 33.8 and 60.0 strands structure of ACSR of 810 mm2 is similar to that of 610
A/mm2 for iron and aluminum, respectively, which is mm2 investigated in this paper. Therefore, in the calculations,
determined considering the arc current value and the diameter the heat is transferred firstly to the aluminum layer from the
of the arc jets measured in [16]. arc, and the layer is molten and removed. After that, the heat is
transferred to the iron layer from the arc, and the layer is also
C. Simplification of Structure of Cross-Section of ACSR
molten.
Strands
As shown in Fig. 3, the ACSR consists of multi-layer D. Molten and Broken Characteristics of ACSR Strands
aluminum strands and steel strands. In the calculations, the In the calculations, after the arc completely melts a
structure of the cross-section of the strands is simplified to that columnar part, which is determined by multiplying Ah and the
shown in Fig. 4, where there is an iron layer under an thickness of the iron layer and the aluminum layer, the arc
aluminum layer. The overall diameter and the area of the travels to the circumference direction of the ACSR and melts
cross-section of the iron layer and the aluminum layer in Fig. 4 another columnar part. It is assumed that a strand of ACSR is
are respectively the same as those shown in Fig. 3. The actual broken when the entire cross-section in part of the strand is
ACSR has several air gaps between the strands as shown in Fig. completely melted. The time t required to completely melt the
3. Therefore, in the calculations for Fig. 4, it is assumed that entire region of cross-section of all strands is calculated. The
each strand is adiabatic and the heat from a strand is not transferred heat to the ACSR from the arc is assumed to be
transferred to the surrounding strands. conducted into the ACSR in the depth direction and the
Although any sharp pictures of ACSR after AC arc tests longitudinal direction of ACSR, with the fraction of heat
were not found, there were some pictures of ACSR of 810 transfer in each direction depending on the thermal resistance
mm2 after DC arc tests as shown in Fig. 5. The pictures in each direction of the ACSR.
indicate that the outer aluminum strands of ACSR were firstly
molten and removed, and subsequently the inner iron strands

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Heat transferred to ACSR Ptotal (kW)

2
ACSR330mm , Lgap=50mm, Counter electrode: Fe
3
10 Fe

10
2 Al

1
10

0
10

-1
10
0.1 1 10 100
Arc current iac (kA)

Fig. 6. Dependence of Pele and Pconv on arc current for ACSR of 330 mm2. Fig. 7. Influence of arc current on total heat transferred to ACSR of 330 mm2.

Area of heat transfer to ACSR Ah (mm )

ACSR330mm , Lgap=50mm, Counter electrode: Fe

2
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 4
10
A. Total Heat Transferred from Arc to ACSR
3
As shown in (1), the total heat transfer Ptotal is the sum of 10
Fe
Pele and Pconv. The dependence of Pele and Pconv as percentages
of Ptotal on iac for ACSR of 330 mm2 is shown in Fig. 6. Pele as 2
10
a percentage of Ptotal decreases with increasing arc current iac,
for example, the percentage is 96 – 99 % for iac 0.1 – 1 kA and 1
10 Al
87 – 88 % for iac 10 – 100 kA. This is because the following
phenomena. Although Pele increases almost linearly with
increasing iac as shown in (1) – (3) and Table II, Pconv 10
0

calculated using (5) increases non-linearly with iac because the
velocity of the arc jet spouted from the counter electrode and
the coefficient h of the heat transfer increase non-linearly with
the arc current. The calculation results for the other ACSRs are
similar to those in Fig. 6.
Fig. 7 shows the dependence of Ptotal on the instantaneous
arc current value of iac for ACSR of 330 mm2. The calculation
parameter is the ACSR strand material (aluminum and iron). In
either case, Ptotal increases almost proportionally with growing
iac. This result suggests that Ptotal varies as a sine function of
time t because iac varies as a sine function of t. Fig. 7 also
indicates that Ptotal for aluminum is less than that for iron. This
is because the voltage Vele associated with the electron transfer
for aluminum is less than that for iron, as shown in Table II,
and because Pele accounts for most of Ptotal as shown in Fig. 6.
The calculation results for other ACSRs are approximately the
same as those in Fig. 7 because Pele does not depend on the
size of the ACSR, although Pconv varies by a few percent with
the size of the ACSR.
B. Area of Heat Transfer from Arc to ACSR
The variation of Ah depending on root-mean-square value of
arc current for the ACSR of 330 mm2 is shown in Fig. 8. Ah for
aluminum is less than that for iron. This result is caused by the
fact that the current density J for aluminum is higher than that
for iron in the calculations, as described in section III-B. The
calculation results for other ACSRs are the same as those in
Fig. 8, because Ah is calculated using the arc current and
0.1 1 10 50
Arc current IAC (kArms)
Fig. 8. Influence of arc current on area of heat transfer to ACSR of 330 mm2.
current density, where the latter is assumed to be independent
of the size of the ACSR.
C. Molten and Broken Characteristics of ACSR Strands
The molten loss of an electrode due to AC arcs has been
related to the flowing electric charge Q, which is the value
obtained by the integration of the current with respect to time
[18]. In general, the number Nmb of molten and broken strands
of ACSR increases with the electric charge Q, and the time t
required to melt and break all the strands decreases with
increasing arc current. The influence of the arc current on the
molten and broken characteristics of all strands and of some
strands on the arc current are described in the following
section 1) and 2), respectively.
1) Molten and Broken Characteristics of All Strands: Fig. 9
shows the calculation results for ACSR of 160 mm2, 330 mm2,
and 610 mm2. These are the dependence of the time t required
to melt and break all the strands on the arc current IAC. The
dependence of t on IAC for electric charges Q of 2000, 5000,
and 10000 C are shown as dashed lines in this figure. To
compare the calculation results with the experimental ones, the
arcing duration after which all strands of the ACSRs were
broken, are shown in this figure. The experimental results were

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2
ACSR, Lgap=50mm, Counter electrode: Fe ACSR330mm , Lgap=50mm, Counter electrode: Fe
10 10
Al

Time t (s)
Time t (s)

1 Q (C) 1
10000
5000
2000
0.1 Size2 160 330 610
0.1 Fe Q (C)
(mm ) 5000
Exp. 2000
Cal. 1000
0.01 0.01
1 10 50 1 10 50
Arc current IAC (kArms) Arc current IAC (kArms)

Fig. 10. Influence of arc current on molten and broken time of aluminum
Fig. 9. Influence of arc current on molten and broken time of all
and iron strands of ACSR of 330 mm2.
strands of ACSR.

TABLE III
COMPARISON BETWEEN EXPERIMENTS AND CALCULATIONS REGARDING BROKEN TIME OF ALL STRANDS OF ACSRS

ACSR 160 mm2 330 mm2 610 mm2

IAC (kArms) 5 10 20 5 10 20 10 20
Experiments (s) [9] 0.44 0.26 0.19 0.85 0.95 0.52 0.28 1.21 0.60
Calculations (s) 0.45 0.27 0.16 1.06 0.60 0.35 1.20 0.68
Ratio of calculations
1.02 1.04 0.84 1.25 1.12 1.15 1.25 0.99 1.13
to experiments

obtained in [9], where the arc current was symmetrically
diverted to the earth side to suppress the movement of the arc,
as described in chapter II.
Table III provides quantitative differences between the
experimental results and the calculation ones regarding the
broken time of all strands. The ratio of the calculations to the
experiments ranges from 0.84 to 1.25. And, most of the ratios
is more than 1.0, which means the experimental broken time is
shorter than the calculated time. It is considered the results are
due to the following phenomena. In the calculations, a strand
of ACSR is broken when the entire cross-section in part of the
strand is completely molten as described in section III.D. On
the other hand, in the experiments, a strand can be broken even
when the strand is not completely molten because the molten
part of the strand can be blown off by an arc jet spouted from
an arc root on the strand [12]. The ratio less than 1.0 is
considered to be due to the variations in the experimental data.
Fig. 9 and Table III suggest that in every ACSR, the molten
and broken time t decreases with increasing arc current, and
the calculation results agree approximately with the
experimental ones, indicating that the calculation method and
conditions seem valid. Moreover, for every ACSR, the
calculation results are not parallel to the dashed line, for which
the electric charge Q is constant. This behavior means that the
molten and broken time t is not inversely proportional to the
arc current IAC. In particular, when IAC exceeds 10 kA, the
change of t with varying IAC decreases, which means that t
decreases less than if it were inversely proportional to IAC. This
result is considered to be due to the following. The area of heat
transfer Ah from the arc to the ASCR calculated using (6)
increases with the arc current. When the arc current IAC is
higher than 10 kA, the arc diameter is larger than the
circumference length of the iron layer of the ACSR. As a result,
the area of the arc on the iron layer spreads in the direction of
the length of the ACSR because the arc current density on the
ACSR (aluminum and iron layers) is assumed to be constant.
This causes that the time t required to melt and break the iron
layer decrease less rapidly with increasing arc current above
10 kA, as shown in Fig. 10.
2) Molten and Broken Characteristics of Some Strands: When
the number of broken strands exceeds 10 % of the total
number of aluminum strands in ACSR, the ACSR must be
replaced or repaired using a compression connection tube
(repair sleeve) in Japan [19]. For example, the total number of
aluminum strands is 30, 26, and 54 for ACSR of 160 mm2, 330
mm2, and 610 mm2, respectively. Therefore, when the number
of broken strands reaches 4, 3, and 6 for ACSR of 160 mm2,
330 mm2, and 610 mm2, respectively, the ACSR must be
replaced or repaired using a repair sleeve.
Fig. 11 shows the calculated influence of the arc current on
the molten and broken time of strands, where the number of
broken strands is 4, 3, and 6 for ACSR of 160 mm2, 330 mm2,
and 610 mm2, respectively. As the duration of a short-circuit
current in a 66 / 77 kV system is at most 0.1 s, a dotted line
corresponding to t 0.1 s is drawn in Fig. 11. Fig. 11 suggests
that there is a range of arc current for which t is less than 0.1 s.
When the arc current exceeds 2 kA, 5 kA, and 10 kA for
ACSR of 160 mm2, 330 mm2, and 610 mm2, t becomes less
than 0.1 s, respectively. The authors think these results must be
considered when utility companies investigate whether ACSR

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPWRD.2018.2890697, IEEE
ACSR, Lgap=50mm, Counter electrode: Fe
5 which depends only on the ACSR material and the r.m.s. value
2
Size (mm ) 160 330 610
Time t (s)
1 Number of
breaking strands 4 3 6
0.1
0.01
1 10
Arc current IAC (kArms)
Fig. 11. Influence of arc current on molten and broken time of some of
the strands of ACSR.
has to be replaced or repaired, although the calculation
conditions are severe because the arc on the ACSR is assumed
not to move along the ACSR in its length direction. As there
are not any experimental results to be compared with the
calculation ones, the experimental data will be obtained to
validate the calculations in the future.
V. CONCLUSION
The authors have developed a calculation method for the
molten and broken characteristics of ACSR strands because of
AC arcs. By means of the calculation method, in this paper, the
molten and broken duration for all strands and for some of the
strands is calculated for ACSR of 160 mm2, 330 mm2, and 610
mm2, which are used in 66/77 kV overhead transmission lines
in Japan. The current of the AC arcs is varied from 1 kA to 50
kA.
As a result, in every ACSR, the time t required to melt and
break all the strands decreases with increasing arc current. The
ratio of the calculated time to the measured one ranges from
0.84 to 1.25, which means the calculation results agree
approximately with the experimental results. That indicates
that the calculation method and conditions seem valid for the
cases of all strands molten and broken.
Furthermore, the time t required to melt and break some of
the strands is calculated. In the calculations, the number of
broken strands is 4, 3, and 6 for ACSR of 160 mm2, 330 mm2,
and 610 mm2, respectively, because the ACSR must be
replaced or repaired when the number of breaking strands
exceeds 10 % of the total number of aluminum strands in
ACSR in Japan. The calculation results reveal that there is a
range of arc current for which t is less than 0.1 s, which is the
maximum duration of a short-circuit current in a 66/77 kV
system. The authors think these calculation results must be
considered when utility companies investigate whether ACSR
has to be replaced or repaired, although the calculation
conditions are severe because the arc on the ACSR is assumed
not to move along the ACSR in its length direction.
The calculations in this paper involve some assumptions,
e.g., as described in III.B, to simplify the calculations the heat
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Transactions on Power Delivery
7
transfer area from arc to ACSR is assumed a constant value
of arc current, although the heat transfer area will change over
time because the current is AC. To improve the calculation
method, therefore, the change of the heat transfer area
depending on time needs to be clarified by experiments (e.g.,
optical observations) and/or calculations.
Q (C)
1000
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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/TPWRD.2018.2890697, IEEE
Transactions on Power Delivery
8

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Mikimasa Iwata (SM’16) was born in Aichi

Prefecture, Japan, in 1964. He received the B.E., M.E.
and Ph.D. degrees from Nagoya University, Aichi
Prefecture, Japan, in 1988, 1990 and 2000
respectively. In 1990, he joined the Central Research
Institute of Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI). From
2006 to 2007 he was a Visiting Research Associate
of RWTH Aachen University. He is currently a
Deputy Associate Vice President and Sector Leader
with the High Current and Arc Phenomena Sector
and the High Power Testing Laboratory at CRIEPI. His research interests are
mainly high current arc phenomena on power equipment. He is a senior
member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan (IEEJ) and a member
of the Maintenance Team 14 of IEC SC17C. In 2006, he was awarded the
Technical Development Award by the IEEJ.

Toshiya Ohtaka (M’03) was born in Kanagawa

Prefecture, Japan, in 1976. He received the B.E., M.E.,
and Ph.D. degrees from Waseda University, Tokyo
Metropolis, Japan, in 1998, 2000, and 2003,
respectively. From 2001 to 2003, he was a Research
Associate at Waseda University, where he was a
Visiting Lecturer from 2003 to 2004. In 2004, he
joined the Central Research Institute of Electric
Power Industry (CRIEPI), and is currently a Senior
Research Scientist of the Electric Power Engineering
Research Laboratory at CRIEPI. From 2016 to 2017, he was a Visiting
Researcher at DNV GL KEMA Laboratories. From 2018, he is on loan to the
Federation of Electric Power Companies as a Deputy General Manager of the
Research and Development Department. His research interests are mainly
high-current arc phenomena and power system analysis. He is a member of
the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.

Yutaka Goda (SM’94) was born in Ehime

Prefecture, Japan, in 1956. He received the B.E. and
Ph.D. degrees from Nagoya University, Aichi
Prefecture, Japan, in 1979 and 1998, respectively. In
1979, he joined the Central Research Institute of
Electric Power Industry (CRIEPI). From 1991 to
1992, he was a Visiting Research Associate at the
University of Connecticut, Storrs. He is currently a
Research Advisor at CRIEPI. His research interests
are mainly arc phenomena on power equipment. He is a senior member of the
Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan (IEEJ) and a member of the
Working Group 12 of IEC-TC42. He was awarded the Technical
Development Award and the Best Article Award by the IEEJ in 1997, 1998
respectively.

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