IEEE 1584 2018 Arc Flash Incident Energy

Calculation
New Standard, New Method, New Learning Curve
IEEE 1584-2018
The new IEEE 1584-2018 arc flash model supersedes the IEEE 1584-2002 model. The
development of this new edition of the standard has taken over fifteen years of work and
is a result of thousands of hours of research, development and validation. The following
sections provide a summary of the main changes of IEEE 1584. ETAP has actively
participated in the development and validation of this model to ensure its correct
application in power system analysis software.

Model Development
The new model was developed based on over 1800 tests to incorporate different
electrode configurations which was much more extensive than the 300 tests used in
2002.

Summary of tests performed:

Electrode Configuration Tests Performed Voltage Range

VCB 485 0.208 ~ 14.8 kV

VCBB 400 0.215 ~ 14.8 kV

HCB 460 0.215 ~ 14.8 kV

VOA 251 0.240 ~ 14.8 kV

HOA 259 0.240 ~ 14.8 kV

Electrode Configuration
The most important step in implementing the calculations based on the new IEEE 1584 -
2018 model, is to identify which one of the five electrode configurations are present in
the equipment being analyzed, while also understanding that it is possible to have one
or more electrode configurations present in a piece of equipment.

Table 9 of IEEE 1584-2018 is a good starting point for some guidelines on how to
identify the potential electrode configuration(s) present in the equipment.

VCB

VCBB
HCB

VOA

HOA
Range of the Model
The range of the voltage and short-circuit current is similar to that of the previous model.
The notable improvement is the range of the gap for medium-voltage equipment, which
has almost doubled.

Model voltage, short-circuit current, gap and working distance range:

Voltage Range Ibf(kA) Gap (mm) WD (inch) Fault Duration (cycles)

(3-P kV LL)

0.208 ≤ V ≤ 0.600 0.5 to 106 6.35 to 76.2 > 12 No Limit*

0.600 < V ≤ 15.0 0.2 to 65 19.05 to 254 > 12 No Limit

Recommended range of the enclosure dimensions:

Enclosure Dimension Value

Height 14 to 49 (in)*

Width (4 x Gap) to 49 (in)*

Opening Area 2401 (in2)

Parameters used in testing:

Parameter Value

Frequency 50 ~ 60 Hz

Phases 3-Phase
 Configurations VCB, VCBB, HCB, VOA, HOA

*Larger opening sizes may be modeled but the correction factor is calculated at 49 (in).

IEEE 1584-2018, Section 4.11 still recommends that the model can be used for single -
phase systems and expects the results to be conservative.

Summary of the actual sizes of the test enclosures used to develop the model range:

Equipment Class Height (mm) Width (mm) Depth (mm)

15 kV Switchgear 1143* 762* 462*

5 kV Switchgear

15 kV MCC 914.4 914.4 914.4

5 kV Switchgear

5 kV MCC 660.4 660.4 660.4

Low-Voltage Switchgear 508 508 508

Shallow Low-Voltage MCCs and Panelboards 355.6* 304.8* ≤ 203.2*

Cable Junction Box

Deep Low-Voltage MCCs and Panelboards 355.6* 304.8* > 203.2*

Cable Junction Box

*Based on IEEE 1584-2002 enclosure sizes

Voltage Levels
The voltage range applicable to IEEE 1584 remains unchanged at 208V through 15kV.
Low voltage range is now 208V through 600V.

In previous versions of IEEE 1584 (2002) a reference to the Ralph Lee method allowed
the possibility to use this method for this condition, yet its results were found to be
totally unrealistic. Also, the physical behavior of the arcs and the mode of failure are
totally different for overhead open-air equipment. The following table presents a concise
view of the application of different models across voltage levels between 0.208 kV to 15
kV and higher.

Method 208 V to 600 V 601 V to 15 kV 15.1 kV to 38 kV > 38 kV

Phases1 3ɸa 3ɸb 1ɸa 1ɸb 3ɸa 3ɸb 1ɸa 1ɸb 3ɸa 3ɸb 1ɸa 3ɸa 3ɸb 1ɸa

IEEE 1584- G G Y Y G G Y Y Y Y
2002

IEEE 1584- G G Y Y G G Y Y
2018

*ArcFault™ G Y Y Y G Y G

Green (G) – Directly Applicable / Yellow (Y) – Extended with Engineering Assumptions

Non-Shaded – Not Applicable

Note that the Ralph Lee method should not be used at all for voltages above 15 kV, however, since it was
previously applied by ETAP as an alternative to the IEEE 1584-2002 method, ETAP still has this option available
but with a warning.

Arc Current Model (0.208 kV to 0.6 kV)

Perhaps the greatest improvement to the IEEE 1584-2018 model is its capability to
model five different electrode configurations and their effect on the arc current. The
main areas of improvement are its improved expected arc physical behavior, its
increased sensitivity to gap variation, the correction of inconsistencies (such as cases
when Ia > Ibf), etc. Please refer to Annex G.5.5 of IEEE 1584-2018 for more details on
the improvements to the arc current model. The following plot shows a comparative
analysis of the arc current predictions of the new model vs. the IEEE 1584-2002 model.
Arc Current Model (0.6 kV to 15 kV)
Similar to the 2002 method, IEEE 1584-2018 has two different models for arc current.
The medium-voltage part of the model is described in section 4.4 and 4.9 of IEEE 1584-
2018. The model uses an interpolation approach to apply the effect of the voltage on the
arc current. The effect of voltage on the predicted arc current becomes less dominant as
the voltage increases.

The new model centers around the calculation of the arc current at three different
voltages which are 600, 2700 and 14300 Volts AC. The following plot shows the results
of a parameter sweep for short-circuit current for the medium-voltage arc current model.

Arc Current Variation Correction Factor

The arc current is the most important factor to determine the operation time of
overcurrent protective devices. This is the reason why the new IEEE 1584-2018 model
applied an enhanced arc current model. The arc current predicted b y the model is
considered to be the average arc current for the duration of the arc. In reality, the arc
current can experience variations caused by the ac and dc components of the short -
circuit current. Also, the magnitude of the arc current can vary as the arc ignites,
persists and extinguishes. The average current model in 2002 does not include the arc
current measured during ignition or extinguishing periods of the arc. It includes only the
average of all three-phase arc currents.

The physical concept of arc current variation is not changed, however, it was improved.
Based on the analysis done during the new arc flash model development phase, it was
found that the variation in the arc current was higher at voltages below 480 Volts and far
less at voltages such as 600 Volts and 2700 Volts ac.

The value of the arc current variation is no longer fixed to 15% but calculated
continuously based on the equations provided in section 4.5 of IEEE 1584 -2018.

The arc current variation was determined from the median of the measured variation at
each voltage level. The plot below shows the median arc current variation in percent for
each of the five electrode configurations.

Low Voltage Arc Sustainability Limit

The reason the limits were revised is because additional electrode configurations such
as VCBB used in the testing revealed that arcs can sustain at much lower short -circuit
currents than previously presented in the 2002 standard.

Previous versions of IEEE 1584 suggested a limit for sustainability at around 240 Volts
ac with approximately 125 kVA (or 10 kA with a 3.5% impedance transformer). This left
a substantial amount of equipment out of the scope of incident energy calculations.
However, since the limit has been lowered to 240 Volt ac with 2.0 kA of short-circuit
current, it means that more systems had to be analyzed. An overly-conservative
incident energy correction factor was removed from the low-voltage model for IEEE
1584-2018 as shown in the plot below:

As can be observed in this plot, the incident energy results of the new IEEE 1584-2018
model are more accurate and also less over conservative.

Incident Energy Model – (0.208 kV to 0.6 kV)

The incident energy model is described in great detail in sections 4.3, 4.6, 4.9 and 4.10
of IEEE 1584-2018. The overall incident energy model is different from that of the 2002
model because it includes the additional three electrode configurations. In addition, for
enclosed configurations VCB, VCBB and HCB, an enclosure size-correction factor is
applied.
The incident energy model follows the same principle as the arc current. An
interpolation process is done to determine the incident energy. The interpolation takes
place by obtaining intermediate incident energy values at 600, 2700 and 14300 Volts ac.
Incident Energy Model – (0.6 kV to 15 kV)
The plot below shows a comparison of the incident energy for both IEEE 1584 -2018 and
2002 models. The results reveal consistently that if the equipment is determined to now
be HCB configuration that the incident energy can be significantly more. In the plot
below the incident energy for a VCB configuration, using the 2002 model is 20
cal/cm2 while it is predicted to be over 45 cal/cm 2 using the 2018 model if the HCB
electrode configuration is used.

Arc-Flash Boundary Model (0.208 to 0.6 kV)

The testing methods used allow the new model to predict shorter boundary distances.
The testing and data processing used to develop the new arc-flash boundary model
reveal a gain in margin which becomes evident when comparing the results of both
methods (2002 and 2018).
Arc-Flash Boundary Model (0.6 to 15 kV)
Similar to the low-voltage model, there is a notable reduction in the predicted arc-flash
boundary. The overly conservative IEEE 1584-2002 result consistently produces the
highest AFB for similar incident energy values.
The plot below shows the arc-flash boundary vs the arc duration and compares the
2018 AFB vs the 2002 AFB results. This comparison was made for a system voltage of
2700 Volts ac.
Effect of Grounding on the Incident Energy
Based on the findings of the development group of the new IEEE 1584-2018 model, the
effect of grounding is no longer considered.

https://etap.com/arc-flash/arc-flash-ieee1584-2018