Scribd
Upload
11 views

ENEL4HA_Lecture_3

The document covers high voltage engineering concepts related to solid insulation, including types of dielectrics and breakdown mechanisms such as intrinsic, streamer, and electromechanical breakdown. It also discusses partial discharge phenomena, thermal effects in solid insulation, and tracking, which is the degradation of insulation leading to conductive paths. Key equations and definitions are provided to explain the underlying principles of these phenomena.

Uploaded by

Aphilile Alex
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
11 views

ENEL4HA_Lecture_3

The document covers high voltage engineering concepts related to solid insulation, including types of dielectrics and breakdown mechanisms such as intrinsic, streamer, and electromechanical breakdown. It also discusses partial discharge phenomena, thermal effects in solid insulation, and tracking, which is the degradation of insulation leading to conductive paths. Key equations and definitions are provided to explain the underlying principles of these phenomena.

Uploaded by

Aphilile Alex
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

ENEL4HAH1 High Voltage Engineering 1

Revised 2019

Conduction and Breakdown in Solids


The notes need to be explained during lectures or read in conjunction with textbooks.

Lecture 1
Solid insulation includes dielectrics such as:

• XLPE in cables
• Ceramic under certain conditions this changes
• Paper in cables and transformers

• Wood as support structures


• Glass, Silicon rubber and ceramic in insulators
• Transformer bushings

• Dry type (cast resin) transformers

What is the difference between polarisation and conduction currents?


What is the long term effect of polarisation in dielectric materials?

1
Intrinsic Breakdown

Highest breakdown voltage 5 to 10 MV/m.


This occurs with a very high stress over a very short time 10−8 s meaning that there is no thermal,
no electromechanical stress nor polarisation.
In an conductor there is no difference between conduction and valence band, in an insulator there
is a difference or a forbidden region. When electrons gain enough energy from the field, they will
jump to this conduction band.

Frohlich

Self study

Streamer or Avalanche Breakdown

Similar to breakdown in gases. A conduction electron drifts towards the cathode and gains energy
from the field, the energy gained could exceed the energy of the lattice structure and free another
electron.

2
Electromechanical Breakdown

Dielectrics with a voltage across them will have an electrostatic force exerted upon them due to
the surface charges. The pressure exerted by 106 V/cm could be as much as several kN/m2 .
Breakdown occurs when this pressure exceeds the mechanical compressive strength.

Equilibrium is given by when:

d0 1 V2
F = Y ln = ε0 εr 2
d 2 d

Where Y is Young’s modulus, d0 is original distance, d is distance compressed to.


Rearranging and differentiating with respect to d:

2Y d2 d0
V2 = ln
ε0 εr d
∂V 2
 
d0 d 1
= 2d ln + d2 d0 − 2
∂d d d0 d
d0
= 2d ln −d
d

The maximum occurs where:

∂V 2
= 0
∂d
d0
= 2d ln −d
d
d = 0.6d0

Maximum voltage occurs when:

2 2Y d2 d0
Vmax = ln
ε0 εr d
2
Vmax 2Y 1
=
d2 ε0 εr 2
2
= Emax
r
Y
Emax =
ε0 εr
E0 = 0.6Emax

3
Lecture 2

Partial Discharge

According to the IEC 60270:


“Partial Discharge (PD) is a localised electrical discharge that only partially bridges the insulation
between the conductors and which may or may not occur adjacent to a conductor.”
Partial discharges are a result of local electrical stress in the insulation or on the surface of the
insulation and occur as pulses of durations less than 1 µs. Corona is a form of partial discharge
that occurs in a gaseous medium.
Solid and liquid insulating dielectrics contain voids or cavities within the material or at the bound-
aries of the dielectric and the electrodes. The voids or cavities are filled with material with a lower
dielectric strength and permittivity than the dielectric. If the electric field in the cavity exceeds
the breakdown strength a discharge will take place.

εd
Consider the boundary conditions εc Ec = εd Ed or Ec = εc Ed

The voltage across the circuit is given by

V = Ec dc + Ed (d − dc )s
εc d
= Ec dc [1 + εd ( dc − 1)]

The inception voltage is found by replacing Ec dc with the Paschen voltage from the Paschen curve

εc d
Vinception = Vpaschen [1 + εd ( dc − 1)]

4
Lecture 3

Thermal

The solid insulation will have a current flowing through it, this current will cause heat generation.
The heat will dissipate through the insulation towards the boundaries (it must be remembered
that the conductor is often at a much higher temperature than the insulation for extend periods).
The heat generated under dc stress, in W.cm−3 is:

Wdc = E 2 σ

The heat generated under ac stress, in W.cm−3 is:

E 2 f εr tanδ
Wac =
1 × 1012

The heat dissipated is given by:

dT
WT = CV + div(KgradT )
dt

K thermal conductivity, CV specific heat


When Wdc or Wac exceeds WT

Tracking

Tracking is the formation of a permanent conducting path across the surface of an insulator.
Often results from degradation of the insulation (for example in outdoor polymeric insulators this
is caused by thermal, pollution and uv). For tracking to occur the insulation must contain an
organic substance such as polymers (XLPE, silicon rubber). Small sparks cause carbonisation on
the surface.

You might also like