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Breakdown Characteristics of Air gaps

Name : S.P.M Sudasinghe


Index No. : 100523G
Group : G - 12
Field : EE
Date of Performance : 2013/10/03
Date of Submission : 2013/10/21
EE 3092
Laboratory Practice V
PPP - II
Instructed by: Mr Chinthaka
OBSERVATIONS
Name: S.P.M Sudasinghe
Index No: 100523G
Group: G 12
Date of Performance: 2013/10/03
Date of Submission: 2013/10/21
Instructed by: Mr. Chinthaka


Breakdown Voltage of air for Different Types of electrodes

Gap Distance
(mm)
Primary Voltage of transformer at breakdown (V)
Sphere type Plate type Rod type
0.5 30 28
1.0 40 29
1.5 65 42
2.0 85 48 30
2.5 97 87 35
3.0 110 88 48
3.5 130 97 62
4.0 148 86 67
4.5 172 94 70

Room Temperature = 30
0
C
Atmospheric Pressure = 750 mmHg

Transformer Ratings
Voltage Ratio = 220/100000
kVA Rating = 7.5 kVA







CALCULATIONS
Gas density correction factor is given by,

( )
( )

Where
P - Atmospheric pressure in mmHg
T - Room temperature in
0
C

Hence Breakdown voltage at standard pressure and temperature is given by,


Where
Vn - Breakdown voltage at S.T.P
V - Breakdown voltage at pressure P and temperature T
- Gas density correction factor

For Sphere type electrode and gap distance of 0.5 mm

( )
( )

As the transformer ratio is 220V/100 kV, breakdown voltage at S.T.P is given by

= 14.29 kV
Similarly breakdown voltage at S.T.P can be calculated for other instances

Gap Distance
(mm)
Breakdown Voltage at S.T.P (kV)
Sphere type Plate type Rod type
0.5 14.29 13.34 -
1.0 19.05 13.81 -
1.5 30.96 20.01 -
2.0 40.49 22.86 14.29
2.5 46.20 41.44 16.67
3.0 52.39 41.92 22.86
3.5 61.92 46.20 29.53
4.0 70.49 40.96 31.91
4.5 81.93 44.77 33.34










Breakdown Voltages of air for different electrode types
Gap Distance
(mm)
Breakdown Voltage at S.T.P (kV)
Sphere type Plate type Rod type
0.5 14.29 13.34 -
1.0 19.05 13.81 -
1.5 30.96 20.01 -
2.0 40.49 22.86 14.29
2.5 46.20 41.44 16.67
3.0 52.39 41.92 22.86
3.5 61.92 46.20 29.53
4.0 70.49 40.96 31.91
4.5 81.93 44.77 33.34















0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5
B
r
e
a
k
d
o
w
n

V
o
l
t
a
g
e

(
k
V
)

Gap distance (mm)
Breakdown Characteristics of air gaps for diffenrent electrode types
Sphere Plate Rod
DISCUSSION
1. Necessity & usefulness of safety precautions taken in conducting the experiment
High voltage experiments always deal with very high voltages and the hazards can occur if safety
precautions are neglected. In high voltage experiments flashovers can occur through air. Even
though the supply is disconnected there can be static charges in the equipment and can cause
electric shocks and hazards if anyone touch it even he wear slippers. Hence it is essential to obey
necessary safety precautions.

The high voltage lab consists of two floors
The control panel and protection equipment are located in the upstairs. The high voltage test
equipment are located at the down floor. This arrangement is made in order to give adequate air
gap space between livestock and high voltage source during the tests.

Metal net
The test arena is covered with an earthed metal net cage of about 2m height in order to avoid
discharges outside the test arena. This earthed metal net produces a shield which blocks out
external static and non-static electric fields. All the high voltage equipment are located inside
this cage and control panel and other measuring devices are in upstairs. All live stocks are
outside the cage or in upstairs when experiment conducts.









Safety interlock
There is a safety interlocking system in the cage gate that is until all the livestock coming out the
cage and put the plug into the socket, the power supply to the equipment cannot switch on from
the control panel.


Figure 1: Protective metal cage








Earth rod
The earthing rod is always kept across the entrance door. After entering the arena, the test
equipment is earthed using this earthing rod to neutralize the stray static charges which may
cause static electric shock if not neutralized. Earthing rod is placed as sown in the figure 3 across
the cage gate before leaving the cage.









Safety relays
All the HV generators are protected with safety relays in order to give the maximum protection.
It automatically disconnect immediately after a HV discharge during an experiment.

2. Methods of HVDC and HVAC generation
HVAC generation
The Ferranti test circuit arrangement is using two or more voltage transformers in series mode.
Isolation transformer is used to isolate the HV side from the primary side. By isolating HV side,
an electric shock is only occurs if both phase and neutral ends of the HV side are touched.
Electric shock due to earth leakage is avoided. The Ferranti test circuit arrangement given in
figure 4 is using two 230V/100kV voltage transformers in series mode and 200kV is achieved.


Figure 2: Safety interlock of metal cage
Figure 3: Earth rod










HVDC Generation
Economical voltage transformation can only be done using AC power transformers and hence, to
generate HVDC first high voltage AC is generated and then tis HVAC is converted to HVDC by
using rectification methods available. Most commonly used method of rectification used here is
thyristor rectification.
For Power transmission direct current is used for transmission of electric power in bulk, instead
the more commonly used alternating current systems. For remote transmission, HVDC systems
can be less expensive and suffer fewer electrical losses (as experimentally shown). Power cables
HVDC submarine to avoid heavy currents required by the cable capacity. For short distances, the
high cost of DC conversion equipment compared to an alternative system can always be justified,
because other benefits of direct links current. HVDC allows power transmission between the
alternative distribution systems are not synchronized, and can increase system stability by
preventing the spread of a cascading failure in a network of power transmission to the next set.

3. Need of M Resistor
Breakdown voltage of gaseous insulation such as air is very high and is at about 30 kV/cm stress.
Breakdown of gasses occurs due to avalanche effect and much higher current flows in
breakdown. This higher current can damage to the equipments used in the experiment and
nonlinear M resistor is used to limit this current

4. Factors that affect the breakdown voltage of air for a given pair of electrodes

Electrode separation
For vacuum gaps less than about 1 mm the breakdown voltage is approximately proportional to
the length, all other parameters remain constant gives constant breakdown strength. For gaps
greater than about 1mm the breakdown voltage does not increase at an equal rate and the
apparent breakdown strength for larger gaps is much reduced.
Figure 4: Ferranti circuit for generation of 200 kV

Temperature
The variation of breakdown voltage with temperature is very small but cooling the electrodes to
liquid Nitrogen temperature increases the breakdown voltage
Frequency of applied voltage
It is known that a given gap stands a higher impulse voltage than an alternating voltage, and a
higher alternating voltage than a direct voltage. However, it has been shown that for a small gap
(2 mm) there is no dependence of the breakdown voltage on the frequency in the range 50 Hz to
50 kHz.
Vacuum Pressure
For small gaps, decreasing in vacuum pressure increases the breakdown voltage until below a
certain pressure there is no change. The vacuum breakdown region is the region in which the
breakdown voltage becomes independent of the nature of the pressure of the gap between the
electrodes. However, for large gaps (about 200 mm spacing) it is found that below a certain
pressure the breakdown voltage starts decreasing again, so that the breakdown stress at this
stage could in fact be improved by actually worsening the vacuum.
Conditioning of electrode
The breakdown voltage of a gap increases on successive flashovers, until a constant value is
reached. The electrodes are then said to be conditioned.
5. Method of measuring high voltage using sphere gaps
Ionization of gas molecules and the gas density affects the breakdown strength of the gas. The
breakdown voltage also varies with the gap spacing. Because of the high consistency of
breakdown voltage for uniform air gap, the sphere gap can be used as a measuring device.
A classical method for high-voltage measurement is a sphere spark gap, also object of many
studies in the past, as it was for long time the most practical way to measure high voltages.
Several formulas and tables for the relation between the geometry of the system and the
sparking voltage can be found. This measuring method is considered precise within a few per
cent, if enough care is taken.
The maximum spark length is determined by applying the high voltage to a pair of electrodes
and bringing the electrodes closer to each other until a spark jumps over.

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