Characterizing a sustained short-circuit current with the use of reed relays

We propose to characterize the short-circuit current in high-voltage electrical installations by measuring the closing time of contacts of closing and switching reed relays, their closed-state time, or the time elapsed between the closing (opening) of contacts of a reed-relay pair. Techniques for determining the amplitude of this current and the errors are outlined. It is shown that the laboratory dependences of the current amplitude in the solenoid coil on the indicated time may be used to determine the I_m.a value. The experimental results are presented.