High voltage Engineering

Lecture No. 8
High Voltage Generation

Lecture contents
Impulse voltage generation

Transient/Impulse voltage
Studies of transient disturbances on a
transmission system have shown that lightning
strokes and switching operations are followed by
a traveling wave of a steep wave front
When a voltage wave of this type reaches a
power transformer it causes an unequal stress
distribution along its windings and may lead to
breakdown of the insulation system
It has, therefore, become necessary to study the
insulation behavior under impulse voltages

 An impulse voltage is a unidirectional voltage

which rises rapidly to a maximum value and then
decays slowly to zero
The wave shape is generally defined in terms of
the times t1 and t2 in microseconds, where t1 is the
time taken by the voltage wave to reach its peak
value and t2 is the total time from the start of wave
to the instant when it has declined to one-half of
the peak value
The wave is then referred to as a t1/t2 wave

 The exact method of defining an impulse

voltage, however, is specified by various
International Standards
The British Standard specification defines
the impulse voltage in terms of nominal
wave front and wave tail durations
Fig 4.5 shows the Shape of an impulse
wave where the nominal wave front duration
t1 is specified as

t1 = 1.25 T1T2

Where
OT1 = time for the voltage wave to reach 10% of the peak voltage.
OT2 = time for the voltage wave to reach 90% of the peak voltage.
The point O1 where the line CD cuts the time axis is defined as the
nominal starting-point of the wave
The nominal wave tail t2 is the time between O1 and the point on the
wave tail where the voltage is one-half the peak value, i.e. t2 = OIT4.

 The wave is then referred to as a t1/ t2 wave and

according to the standard specified in B.S. 923 a 1/50
sec wave is the standard wave
The specification permits a tolerance of up to 50% on
the duration of the wave front and 20 % on the
duration of the wave tail
In the corresponding American specification, the
nominal wave front duration is defined as given by
1.5T1T2 and the standard wave is a 1.5/40 sec
The tolerances allowed on the wave front and the wave
tail are 0.5 sec and 10 sec respectively

Single Stage Impulse

Generator
An impulse generator essentially consists of a capacitor
which is charged to the required voltage and discharged
through a circuit the constants of which can be adjusted
to give an impulse voltage of desired shape.
The basic circuit of a single-stage impulse generator is
shown in Fig. 5(a) where the capacitor C1 is charged
from a direct current source until the spark-gap G
breaks down
A voltage is then impressed upon the object under test
of capacitance C2.

Single stage impulse

generator

 a) Single-stage Impulse Generator Circuit

The wave-shaping resistors R1 and R2 control
respectively the front and the tail of the impulse
voltage available across C2. An analysis of the
simple circuit is given as follows.
Figure 4.6 (b) represents the Laplace transform
circuit of the impulse generator of Fig. 4.6 (a) and
the output voltage is given by the expression:

2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

a) Single-stage Impulse Generator Circuit
By Substitution:

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Transient Voltage
a) Single-stage Impulse Generator Circuit

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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

a) Single-stage Impulse Generator Circuit
Where S1 and S2 are the roots of the equation s2+as+b = 0 and both will be
negative. From the transform tables

In a practical case R2 is much greater than R1 and C1 much greater than C2

and an approximate solution is obtained by examining the auxiliary equation:

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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

Where the value of (1/R1C1 + 1/R2C2) is much smaller than 1/R1C2 .

1
1
1
s
s
s
R1R2C1C2
R1C2
R2C1
1

sWasaddded asapproximatelyzero.)
R2C1
2

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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

a) Single-stage Impulse Generator Circuit
and the graph of the expression is shown in Fig. 6.

Fig: 6
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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

a) Single-stage Impulse Generator Circuit

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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

a) Single-stage Impulse Generator Circuit
The above analysis shows that the wave shape
depends upon the values of the generator and
the load capacitances and the wave-control
resistances
The exact wave shape will be affected by the
inductance in the circuit and the stray
capacitances
The inductance depends upon the physical
dimensions of the circuit and is kept as small as
possible.
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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

a) Single-stage Impulse Generator Circuit
The simplified circuit is shown in Fig. 7(a) where
C1 = discharge capacitance of generator C2 =
capacitance of the load, L1 = internal inductance
of generator, L2 = external inductance of load and
connections, R1 = resistance controlling the wave
front, R2 or R = resistance controlling the wave
tail
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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

a) Single-stage Impulse Generator Circuit
The wave-tail resistance can be either on the load side or
on the generator side
Tail of the impulse wave is generally long compared with
its front-as is in the case of a standard wave voltage of
1/50 or 1.5/40 sec very little error results from ignoring
the wave-tail resistance in the calculation of the wave
front duration
The circuit, therefore, can be further simplified to the form
shown in Fig. 7(b).
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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

a) Single-stage Impulse Generator Circuit

Fig: 7:

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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

b) Multistage Impulse Generator Circuit

The one-stage circuit is not suitable for higher voltages

because of the difficulties in obtaining high direct current
voltages
In order to overcome these difficulties, Marx suggested an
arrangement where a number of condensers are charged in
parallel through resistances and discharged in series through
spark gaps
A typical circuit is presented in Fig.8 which shows the
connections for a five-stage generator
The stage capacitors C are charged in parallel through highvalue charging resistors R. At the end of the charging period,
the points A, B,E will be at the potential of the d.c.
source,
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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

b) Multistage Impulse Generator Circuit

Fig: 8
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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

b) Multistage Impulse Generator Circuit
e.g. + V with respect to earth, and the points F, G,, M will
remain at the earth potential
The discharge of the generator is initialized by the breakdown
of the spark gap AF which is followed by simultaneous
breakdown of all the remaining gaps
When the gap AF breaks down, the potential on the point A
changes from + V to zero and that on point G swings from
zero to -V owing to the charge on the condenser A.G
If for the time being the stray capacitance C is neglected, the
potential on B remains + V during the interval the gap AF
sparks over.
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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

b) Multistage Impulse Generator Circuit
A voltage 2V, therefore, appears across the gap BG which
immediately leads to its breakdown
This breakdown creates a potential difference of 3V across
CH; the breakdown process, therefore, continues and finally
the potential on M attains a value of - 5V
In effect, the low voltage plates of the stage capacitors are
successively raised to - V, - 2V, . - nV, if there are n
stages
This arrangement gives an output with polarity opposite to
that of the charging voltage.
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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

b) Multistage Impulse Generator Circuit

The above considerations suggest that a multistage impulse

generator should operate consistently irrespective of the
number of stages
In practice for a consistent operation it is essential to set the
first gap (G1) for breakdown only slightly below the second
gap (G2)
A more complete analysis shows that the voltage distribution
across the second and higher gaps immediately after the
breakdown of the lowest gap (G1) is governed by the stray
capacitances and gap capacitances shown in dotted lines in
Fig.4.11. The effect of stray capacitances on voltage across
G2 immediately after breakdown of G1 may be estimated as
follows:
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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

b) Multistage Impulse Generator Circuit
Assume the resistors as open circuits and the stray capacitances negligible in
comparison with the stage capacitors. Let (A) in Fig.8 be charged to + V
After breakdown of G1 the point G initially at earth will assume a potential - V, but
the potential of B is fixed by the relative magnitudes of C1, C2 and C3 and is given
by

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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

b) Multistage Impulse Generator Circuit
If C2 = 0, VG2 reaches its maximum value of 2V. If both C1 and Cs are zero,
V G. will equal to V, i.e. its minimum value
It is apparent, therefore, that the most favorable conditions for the
operation of the generator occur when the gap capacitance C 2 is small
and the stray capacitances C1 and C3 are large
The conditions set by the above expression are transient, as the stray
capacitors start discharging
The practical stray capacitors are of low values, consequently the time
constants are relatively short 0.1 micro second or less

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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

b) Multistage Impulse Generator Circuit
For consistent breakdown of all gaps the axes of the gaps
should be in one vertical plane so that the ultraviolet
illumination from the spark in the first gap irradiates the other
gaps
This ensures a supply of electrons in the gaps to initiate break
down during the short period when the gaps are subjected to
the over-voltage
The consistency in the firing of the first stage spark gap is
improved by providing illumination from ultraviolet lamps
placed below the first gap
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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

b) Multistage Impulse Generator Circuit
The wave-front control resistors, in a multistage generator,
can be connected either externally to the generator or
distributed within the generator, or partly in and partly
outside it
In the best arrangement, about half of the resistance is
outside the generator
An advantage of distributing the wave-front resistors within
the generator is that it reduces the need for an external
resistor capable of withstanding the full impulse voltage.

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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

b) Multistage Impulse Generator Circuit
If all the series resistances are distributed within the
generator, the inductance and capacitance of the external
leads and the load form an oscillatory circuit
An external resistance, therefore, becomes necessary to
damp out these oscillations
The method of placing part of the wave-front control
resistance in series with each gap serves to protect against
disruptive discharge as well as to damp out any generator
internal oscillation
Wave-tail control resistances are generally used as the
charging resistors within the generator
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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

b) Multistage Impulse Generator Circuit

Fig: 9.

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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

b) Multistage Impulse Generator Circuit

The circuit shown in Fig.9 is commonly used to obtain high efficiency with
distributed series resistors.
The value of R3 is made large compared with R1 and R2 is made as small as is
necessary to obtain the required length of the wave tail.
In a practical generator employing this circuit, the voltage drop in R1 was made
less than 1% of the output voltage by selecting suitable values of the parameters
The stage capacitance was 0.2 F, R1 was about 40 and the wave-tail resistance
R2 required for a 5 sec wave tail was about 25. R3 was made nearly 10k

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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

b) Multistage Impulse Generator Circuit
Impulse generators are characterized by the total nominal voltage, the
number of stages and the stored energy
The nominal output voltage is given by the product of the highest charging
voltage and the number of stages
Because of the resistance and inductance in series with the generator and
the test circuits, the voltage across the test object is lower than the
nominal output of the generator
The nominal energy of the generator is defined as CgV2 , where Cg
denotes the discharge capacitance of the generator and V the maximum
nominal voltage.
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2. Transient / Impulse Voltage

b) Multistage Impulse Generator Circuit
The energy required varies over a wide range
depending upon the nature of the object under test.
For example, the energy of the generator can be
low for testing insulator strings, isolators, etc.,
whereas when tests are carried out on objects of low
impedance such as transformers, the energy must
be higher

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Conclusive formulae for wave front and tail

for impulse generator problems

Next Lecture
Generation of High voltage
Problem discussion