為維護用電安全，現今的工廠與居家之低壓配電線路中都裝設過電流及過載保護裝置，於短路及過載時切離電源。有些特定支路還必須安裝漏電斷路器，避免人員感電。當這些保護裝置正確使用時，似乎不需要其它的保護裝置。然而，根據國外調查指出，有些住宅火災發生原因，懷疑是因為電弧故障所引起。經由火災證據顯示，電弧也是造成電氣火災的主要因素。電弧故障斷路器(Arc-Fault Circuit Interrupter-AFCI)為一偵測線路中電弧故障發生的保護裝置，它透過對電弧特性判別來偵測串聯及並聯電弧，在電弧的熱能引起火災前儘早切離電源。為探討電弧故障斷路器在台灣工廠與居家低壓配線系統的適用性，本論文設計詳細實驗，測試電弧故障斷路器的動作性能。
實驗方法為考慮線路特性及負載特性，以人為方式產生串聯電弧故障，測試四種電弧故障斷路器。在全部1000次電弧故障測試中，電弧故障斷路器跳脫比例為44%。在一些特定負載在正常操作下自然產生電弧的500次測試中，引發電弧故障斷路器誤動作比例只有0.4%。
考量成功跳脫比例與誤動作比例，電弧故障斷路器應適用於台灣低壓配線系統。在實驗過程中也發現電弧斷路器動作原理，可提供國內各廠商開發及研究電弧故障斷路器參考。並提出一檢測電弧故障的方法。此檢測方法雖未成熟，但技術上的確是可行的。

Today, the low voltage distribution circuits in the industry plants and houses in Taiwan have been installed over current and over load circuit breakers to switch off power sources during fault or over loading conditions. The earth leakage breakers are also installed in some special circuits to protect people from electric shock. When those protection devices are properly applied, it seems that no other protection devices are required. However, many oversea examples reveal the facts that a number of home fires are caused by electric arc faults. The arc-fault circuit interrupter (AFCI) is a device which can detect the occurring of electric arc in the low voltage circuits. It can switch off the power source before the occurring of fire caused by series or parallel electric arc faults. In order to investigate the feasible application of AFCI in the low voltage distribution circuit systems of the industry plants and houses in Taiwan, detailed experiments are used in this paper is to examine the action performance of AFCI.
In the experiment procedures, the line conditions and load characteristics are considered. Then artificial series arcing faults are used to test four types of AFCI. Among the 1000 arcing fault tests, the percentage of successful action of AFCI is 44%. In the 500 tests of natural arcing in the normal operation of some loads, the percentage of malfunction of AFCI is only 0.4%.
So considering the successful action percentage and malfunction percentage, AFCI is suitable to be used in the low voltage distribution systems in Taiwan. The action characteristics of AFCI found in the experiment procedures is a good reference to whose who are interested in the development of AFCI. And it is to provide a method which detects series arcing faults. Though this method is not developed well, but it can be actually work.

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