Electrical Breakdown

Presented by : Mohamed Walid

Mahmoud Ehab
Electrical Breakdown

Electrical breakdown means failure of insulation.

Electrical breakdown is when a material loses its insulating properties.

This allows a large current to flow.
When does it happen breakdown

Beyond rating Insulating medium Breakdown occur Electrodes short circuit

can't tolerate
Types Of Electrical Breakdown

GASES

Electrical
Breakdown

LIQUIDS SOLIDS
Gas Breakdown
•The simplest and the most commonly found dielectric.
•Most of the electrical apparatus use air as the insulating medium.
•In few cases other gases such as nitrogen (N2), carbon
dioxide (CO2), freon (CCl2F2) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).

SF6 gas insulated circuit breaker

 Breakdown in gas

Ionization takes place High current Electrons or ions created

•Breakdown occurs within gas when dielectric strength of gas failures.

•The electrical breakdown of a gas is brought about by various process of ionization.
•These are good processes involving the collision of electrons, ions and photons with gas molecules
and electrode processes.
 Layout Of Gas Breakdown Process

COLLISION OF ELECTRICAL GAS GETS GAS BREAKDOWN

UNIONIZED GAS
MOLECULES DISCHARGE IONIZED OCCURS

o The process of liberating an electron from a gas molecule with the

simultaneous production of a positive ion is called ionization.
o In this process free electron collides with a neutral gas molecule and give rise
to a new electron and a positive ion
 Gas Breakdown
o Consider a low-pressure gas column in
which an electric field E is applied across
two plane parallel electrodes.
o Any electron starting at the cathode will be
accelerated more and more between
collisions with other gas molecules during
its travel toward the anode.
o If the energy (ᵋ) gained during this travel
between collisions exceeds the ionization
potential Vi then ionization takes place

Arrangement for a study of Townsend discharge

Gas Breakdown
Solid breakdown

Electromechanical
Thermal breakdown
breakdown

TYPES OF BREAKDOWN IN Breakdown due to internal

Intrinsic breakdown
SOLID discharges

Breakdown due to treeing Electrochemical

and tracking breakdown
 Types of breakdown of solid
1. Intrinsic Breakdown – Occurs due to the inherent properties of the dielectric material when exposed to a high
electric field.
2. Thermal Breakdown – Results from excessive heating due to power loss, leading to degradation of the insulation.
3. Electromechanical Breakdown – Happens when mechanical stresses from electric fields cause structural failure
in the dielectric.
4. Breakdown Due to Internal Discharges – Caused by localized electrical discharges within cavities or voids inside
the dielectric material.
5. Electrochemical Breakdown – Happens due to chemical reactions initiated by electric fields, such as moisture
absorption leading to degradation.
6. Breakdown Due to Treeing and Tracking – Occurs when electrical discharges create branch-like conductive
paths (treeing) or surface degradation (tracking).
breakdown of solid dielectrics

Facts and Factors:

o When breakdown occurred in solid, it is permanently damaged.
o Damaged Solid materials can not recover their original breakdown strength.

Good Solids Dielectric Must Have:

o High Breakdown Strength
o Low dielectric loss
o High mechanical Strength
o Should be free from moisture
breakdown mechanisms of solid dielectrics

The principal mechanisms for breakdown of Solid

Factor Affecting the breakdown of Solids: materials:

o Ambient Temperature. o Intrinsic Breakdown or ionic Breakdown

o Mechanical Strength o Electromechanical Breakdown.
o Impurities, Gaseous inclusion, water and moistures. o Thermal Breakdown
o Chemical deterioration. o Electrochemical Breakdown
o Treeing and tracking mechanism
breakdown mechanisms of solid dielectrics

o The mechanism of breakdown is a complex phenomena

in the case of solids, and varies depending on the time
of application of voltage.
o Time of application plays an important role in
breakdown process, for discussion purposes, it is
convenient to divide the time scale of voltage
application into regions in which different mechanisms
operate.
Solid Breakdown
INTRODUCTION
• Liquid dielectrics are used mainly in HV cables and capacitor for filling
up of transformers, circuit breakers.
• Liquid dielectrics are more useful as insulating materials than either
solids or gases.
• liquids and solids are usually 103 times denser than gases.
• Oil is about 10 times more efficient than air or nitrogen in its heat
transfer capability when used in transformers.
Liquids as Insulating Materials
• Major Impurities in Liquids:
1. Dust
2. Carbon and Sulphur ions
3. Water Particles
4. Water Vapour
5. Dissolved Gases such as Co₂
Electric properties of liquid dielectrics
• From the electrical point of view, the following properties have to be
considered:
a) Dielectric strength (an indication of the ability to withstand high
electric stresses).
→The dielectric strength depends on the material of electrodes,
temperature, type of applied voltage.
→The dielectric strength of common liquid dielectrics varies between
30 and 60 kV/cm for continuous operation.
Electric properties of liquid dielectrics
• b) Relative permittivity "dielectric constant εr":
The dielectric constant of common petroleum oils vary between 2.0 and
2.6, while other oils have relative permittivity up to 78 (The commonly used
liquid dielectrics have dielectric constants varying between 2.0 and 5)
c) The resistivity:
Insulating liquids must have high resistivities in the order of 1016ohm-
meter (important specially for high-voltage applications).
d) The loss tangent (tan δ) "the quality factor":
This is an indication of the power loss under ac voltage applications( it has a
special importance in cable and capacitor systems, but neglected in case of
transformers)
Physical properties of liquid dielectrics
• Viscosity: when the viscosity increases, the liquid behaves similar to
solid materials.
• Thermal stability: when the temperature of the liquid increases, the
spacing between atoms becomes larger. This increases the possibility
of breakdown occurrence.
• Gas contents: very important since it strongly influences the
breakdown strength of liquid dielectrics.
Factors affecting the breakdown in liquids
1. The electric field
2. The cathode work function: which is similar to the effect of the
nature of electrode surfaces in gas dielectrics
3. The temperature of the cathode: there may be a difference between
the temperature of the liquid and he cathode itself.
4. The liquid viscosity
5. The liquid temperature
Pure liquids and commercial liquids
→ The pure liquids are characterized by three properties: they are
chemically pure, free from impurities and have simple structure.
obtaining a pure liquid necessitates a complicated purification process,
which increases the price of such insulators (the breakdown strength of
pure liquids can reach 10 times as much higher as commercial liquids).
• Examples of the pure liquids are: n-hexane (C6H14) and n- heptane
(C7H16).
→ Commercial liquids are not chemically pure: contain many impurities
and normally composed of mixtures of complex organic molecules.
Purification Process
• The purification is the process of rejecting the impurities existing in
liquid dielectrics such as dust, moisture, dissolved gases and ionic
impurities. There are four main methods for purification:
1. Chemical handling: which depends on adding ion exchange
materials and filtering.
→ lonic impurity such as water and water vapor (cause high
conductivity and heating) are removed using drying agents or using
vacuum drying
2. Filtration: which includes mechanical filters, spray filters and
electrostatic filters (dust particles).
3. Centrifuging
4. Degassing and distillation (depends on amount of gas in liquid like
O2 and CO2
 Liquid purification system with test cell
• 1. The cycle starts when the liquid flows from the
reservoir through the distillation column to remove ionic
impurities,
• 2. Then, the water vapor is removed by drying agents in
the low temperature bath,
• 3. The dissolved gases are then removed by forcing them
in the cooling tower and/or by pumping them out by the
vacuum pumps,
4. Finally, the dust particles are removed from the liquid
when they pass through the filter,
5. After been used in the test cell, the purified liquid flows
back into the reservoir.
→ In this cycle: the vacuum system helps to remove the
moisture and other gaseous impurities. Thus, the
purification process is completed.
Breakdown in liquid dielectrics

1) conduction and breakdown in pure liquids

• Figure(a): under higher electric fields the
current starts to increase rapidly
• Figure(b): show the current - electric field
characteristic in more details.
→lonic region happens due to small current flows
by the dissociation of ions.
→ Saturation region is similar to the behavior of
gas dielectrics.
→Field - aided region is caused by the electrons
emitted from the cathode.
11/11/1446
 Breakdown in liquid dielectrics
• (b) Cavitation and the bubble theory
What are the reasons that cause the formation of the vapor bubbles?
1- gas pockets at the surface of the electrodes.
2- Vaporization of the liquid under a high voltage and a non-uniform field.
3- gaseous products due to the dissociation of liquid molecules.
4- electrostatic repulsive forces between the two electrodes.
Once a bubble is formed, it will be subjected to the electric field, The breakdown field will be

• σ: the surface tension of the liquid, ε₁: the permittivity of the liquid, ε2 : the permittivity of
the gas bubble, r: radius of the bubble, Vb : the voltage drop in the bubble
Thank you