Prospective Short-Circuit Current • Busbar Fault MVA • Generator & Motor Contribution • Breaker Breaking & Making Duty • I²t • N-1 Fault Level

Ship Electrical Short Circuit Current, Breaker Capacity & Busbar Fault Level Tool

Screen shipboard AC fault levels against circuit-breaker interrupting and making capacity instead of comparing generator kVA with breaker kA. Simple mode estimates main-bus symmetrical and peak short-circuit duty. Advanced combines generator, transformer/shore and motor contributions through entered fault-path impedance, then checks multiple fault locations, breaker margins, busbar thermal duty and N-1 source configurations.

Figures represent
↑
Nine inputs for a fast main-bus breaker-duty screen.Use generator subtransient reactance and breaker nameplate data where available. This is a prospective-fault screening calculation, not a protection-coordination or arc-flash study.
Fault CurrentInitial symmetrical kA
Fault LevelBusbar short-circuit MVA
Breaker DutyBreaking & making margin

Source & Motor Contribution

V line-to-line, 3-phase.
Identical generators online.
kVA per generator.
% on each generator base.
Aggregate kW connected to the faulted bus.
× estimated motor full-load current.
Used for peak-making-current screening.

Breaker Ratings

kA RMS symmetrical at system voltage.
kA peak.

System Basis

V line-to-line.
User-entered short-circuit voltage factor.
% above calculated duty.

AC Source Register

Generator / transformer rows use rating and entered impedance. “Direct kA” rows use an OEM or study-derived initial symmetrical contribution. Quantity is treated as identical units operating in parallel.

UseOnline?TypeNameQtyRating kVAZ / Xdʺ %Direct Ikʺ kA / unitX/R

Running Motor Contribution Register

Motor short-circuit contribution is screened as entered multiple × calculated full-load current. For a formal marine study, use the motor contribution model required by the applicable standard/class method.

UseRunning?NameQtyRated kWPFEfficiencyFault × FLAX/R

Fault Location / Breaker Duty Register

Path R and X are the common impedance from the analyzed source bus to the fault location. Breaker RMS breaking capacity, peak making capacity and busbar short-time withstand are compared with the calculated prospective duty.

UseFault locationPath R mΩPath X mΩBreaker break kA RMSBreaker make kA peakBus Icw kAIcw duration sClearing time s

Study / Protection Checks

Engineering boundary: this tool is a screening / planning model. It does not replace a formal IEC 61363-1 marine short-circuit study, IEC 60909 calculation where applicable, class review, breaker time-current coordination, arc-flash assessment or OEM verification. Converter-fed sources can have current-limited behavior that must be entered from manufacturer/study data rather than inferred from rotating-machine reactance.
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