Estimation of Partial Discharge Inception

Voltages in the Ambient Medium of SF

6


M.U. Zuberi, A. Masood, Ekram Husain & A. Anwar
Department of Electrical Engineering; Z.H. College of Engineering and Technology
A.M.U. Aligarh 202002 (India)

Abstract - In this paper we report a technique for estimating the
Partial Discharge (PD) inception voltages in case of discharges
occurring at the interface as well as in voids in the ambient
medium of Sulphur Hexafluoride gas (SF
6
). Since occurrence of
PD is a phenomenon dependent on upon many factors such as the
type of gas in the void, the gas pressure, surface properties of the
void, size and shape of the void, dielectric constant of the
surrounding medium; these parameters have to be taken into
account. The computed values are valid in the pressure range of
0.067 kPa to 101.333 kPa. Computations are accurate to 3.5 %
in the pt range of 0.3 1200 kPa-cm. These computations are
useful in understanding discharges in the insulation system of
cables, capacitors, GIS, bushings or epoxy cast equipment which
are dried and impregnated at low pressures and may contain gas
pockets at sub-atmospheric pressures. These computations are
also important and useful for high altitude insulation design and
spacecraft insulation.

Keywords - Partial Discharge, Electrical Insulation, Void
Discharges and Interface Discharges, Inception Voltage, SF
6
.

I. INTRODUCTION

Quality of insulation is essential for successful and reliable
operation of any power apparatus. Minor flaws and
irregularities such as voids, surface imperfections in the
insulation are however inevitable and lead to partial discharge
which are characterized by an electrical breakdown at
localized regions of the electrical insulation. [1]-[3]. The
localization of the discharge may be the consequence of an
electric field enhancement restricted to region that is relatively
small compared with the dimensions of the space or gap
between the conductors. The field enhancement can be
associated with abrupt changes in the nature of the insulating
medium that may be caused by voids in solid dielectrics or gas
filled spaces at dielectric or gas filled spaces at dielectric-
conductor or dielectric-dielectric interface.
Discharges within cavities (voids) in solid insulating system
[4] have long been associated with gradual degradation and
dielectric failure. The correlation between cavity discharge
and degradation has been established for rotating machines
[5], power cables [6] encapsulated transformers and many
other solid dielectric systems so that the correlation between
cavity discharge and degradation is now well established. Gas
filled cavities can originate in a wide range of solid dielectric
systems through many mechanism including differential
thermal expansion(composite systems) incomplete
impregnation or excessive mechanical stress(fiber reinforced
systems) or improper process control (epoxy castings).Cavities
can also originate over a lifetime of operation as a result of
environmental stresses.
For PD tests, some existing standards have already evolved
from the representation of the worst working conditions to
the requirement of a quality of the insulation system. This
procedure requires a high quality for the design and
construction of the insulating structures by controlling their
electric field strength at any point. However, in most of the
cases it is in fact impossible to estimate the real dimensions of
the PD source and of the cavity where it has been produced.
Even more difficult is the evaluation of the chemical or
physical deterioration that it will produce during long
operating times. Since it has not been possible to establish a
definite relationship between the discharge intensity and the
in-service life of electrical insulating systems employed in
cables and power apparatus, the conventional wisdom has
always been to insist on the total absence of PD under
operating conditions, which in turn favored the establishment
and universal acceptance of standardized go/no-go PD tests. In
an attempt to quantify the use of partial discharges in
evaluating the quality of any insulation system, the lowest
voltage at which such events is detected, the partial discharge
inception voltage (PDIV) is proposed in [7].
The question arises as to how the PDIV depends on pressure
as the pressure in the void decreases to near the Paschen
minimum or below. This situation may be important for low
pressure applications such as space or for superconductors
when insulation is subjected to cryogenic temperatures [8].
In the present work a technique has been developed to
evaluate the partial discharge inception voltages in case of
discharges occurring at the interface as well as in voids in the
ambient medium of SF
6
. The estimation of partial discharge
voltages is based on the analysis of Townsend breakdown
criterion and is valid for the whole range of Paschens curve
available. These formulations can be applied for estimating the
PD inception voltages in case of discharges occurring at the
interface or in voids with sufficient accuracy for various
sample thickness and pressures.

II. PRESENT APPROACH

On the basis of the Townsend breakdown criterion [exp (t)
1] = 1, breakdown voltage V
b
is given as:

)] / 1 1 ln( / ln[
'
'
+
=
Apt
Bpt
V
b
(1)

where p is pressure, t is gap spacing and is the secondary
ionization coefficient. The constants A and B can be evaluated
from the Townsend equation [9], [10] for the primary
ionization coefficient,
2008 IEEE.

= A p exp [Bp/E] (2)

where A is the saturation ionization in the gas at a particular
E/p (electric stress/pressure) and B is related to the excitation
and ionization energies [10] ,[11].

In the absence of secondary ionization coefficient, for the
whole range of E/p, equation (1) is of little use for the
evaluation of sparking potentials for the whole pt range. It is
this drawback in Townsends equation which prevents the use
of equation (1) for practical applications.
Since, reasonably accurate breakdown voltages for the gas
under consideration in our case is available [12] for a wide
range of pt values; it is possible to use these values.

Equation (1) can be written as:
k ) (pt
Bpt
V
b
+
=
'
'
ln
(3)

where

k = ln[A / ln(1 + 1/)] (4)

The values of A and B in equation (2) for SF
6
[9], [11] are
given in Table 1.

Table 1
Values of Constants A and B for SF
6


Gas
A
Ionisation /kPa-cm
B
V /kPa-cm
SF
6
95.25 2189.25

Using breakdown voltages V
b
from [12] and the values of A
and B from Table 1, k is computed and obtained [13] as a
function of pt as shown in Table 2.

Table 2
Computed k as a function of pt

Gas
pt
kPa-cm
k
SF
6
0.3 - 3
3 - 1200
ln[4.1227(pt)
-0.4331
]
ln[6.4541(pt)
-0.8374
]

Equation (3) is re-written as:

k pt
Bp
t
V
E
b
g
+
= =
) ln(
' '
(5)

III. ESTIMATION OF PD-INCEPTION VOLTAGES IN
INTERFACE AND VOIDS

On the basis of capacitance voltage distribution law [14] and
Fig. 1, the PD inception voltage (V
i
) for discharges occurring
at the interface is given as:

] 2 [
'
r g i
t t E V + = (6)

and for discharges occurring in voids is given as:

[ ]
r r g i
t t E V ) 1 (
'
+ = (7)

In the above equations E
g
is the electric strength of the gap at
pressure p and t denotes the air gap at the interface of
electrode with the dielectric (Fig. 1a) and it denotes the
thickness of the discharge gap included within the thickness t
of insulation (Fig. 1b) and
r
denotes the relative permittivity
of the dielectric sample.


Figure 1
Cross Section of Insulation (a) Interface
(b) Void


A. PD-INCEPTION VOLTAGES IN INTERFACE

Substituting E
g
from equation (5) into equation (6), V
i
is
written as:

] 2 [
) ln(
'
'
r i
t t
k pt
Bp
V +
+
= (8)

where k = M (pt)
N
, M and N are constants as given in Table 2
for different p t ranges.

For obtaining critical t for minimum inception voltage,
equation (8) is differentiated with respect to t and equated to
zero. This gives:

0 / ] 1 ) [ln( 2
] / ) 1 ( 2 [ ) (
= +
+
r
r
N
t t p t
Nt N t t p M

(9)

Substituting the values of M, N and t/
r
in equation (9), t can
be obtained for the appropriate range of pt and for any
pressure, by Newton-Raphson method. The value of t thus
obtained is used in equation (8) to compute V
ic
.

B. PD-INCEPTION VOLTAGES IN VOID

Substituting E
g
from equation (5) into equation (7), V
i
is
written as:

[ ]
r r i
t t
k pt
Bp
V ) 1 (
) ln(
'
'
+
+
= (10)

For obtaining critical t for minimum inception voltage,
equation (10) is differentiated with respect to t and equated to
zero. This gives:

0 ' )] ' ln( 1 )( 1 [(
] ' ) 1 )( 1 [( ) ' (
= +
+ +
t t pt
Nt t N pt M
r
r
N

(11)

As in case of interface, critical t for voids can be obtained by
solving equation (11) and substituting this value of t, V
ic
for
voids can be calculated from equation (10).

IV. DISCUSSION & CONCLUSIONS

On the basis of Paschens curve and analysis of Townsend
breakdown equation it is possible to compute PD inception
voltage for discharges occurring at the interface as well as in
voids at different pressure and thickness of insulation. This
approach is of great use to researchers in deciding their
experimental parameters and help in deciding safe working
stress for longer life.

The computed values of V
i
against t are plotted for interface
as well as discharges in voids and are illustrated in Fig. 2 and
Fig. 3 respectively. The critical inception voltage V
ic
and
corresponding critical t may be located on the curves for both
types of discharges. It is interesting to note that the
formulation is valid for occurrence of discharges at different
pressure and for different sample (dielectric) thicknesses. It is
observed that at pressures close to atmospheric, critical t
remains virtually the same for the interface as well as cavity
discharges for all the four same thicknesses analyzed. In actual
insulation, a number of voids of different shape and dimension
are present at random and the critical discharges start at the
most favorable site i.e. where stress concentration is
maximum.

The analysis presented does not address the surface roughness
condition, which may exist in voids as well as at the interface.
Also deviations may exist because the values of breakdown
voltages obtained from Paschens curve are valid for stress
between metal-metal surfaces, whereas in case of partial
discharge occurrence the electric stress is between metal-
dielectric surface (interface) and dielectric-dielectric surface.
It may suggest the Paschens breakdown voltage value is
obtained from [15].

This method of estimation may be used for predicting PDIV in
case of discharges occurring at interface as well as voids with
sufficient accuracy and has been utilized for predicting PDIV
in the ambient medium of air [16] and N
2
[17].
Insulation thickness t = 0.1454 cm
100
1000
10000
100000
1000000
10000000
0.01 0.1 1 10
Int erface gap t ', cm
I
n
c
e
p
t
i
o
n

V
o
l
t
a
g
e

V
i
,

V
o
l
t
s
-
p
e
a
kp=0.4
p=0.067
p=0.2
p=1.2
p=2.667
p=6.667
p=13.333
p=20.000
p=26.667
p=40.000
p=53.333
p=66.667
p=91.3333
p=101.333

Insulation thickness t =0.3220 cm
100
1000
10000
100000
1000000
10000000
0.01 0.1 1 10
Interface gap t'. cm
I
n
c
e
p
t
i
o
n

V
o
l
t
a
g
e

V
i
,

V
o
l
t
s
-
p
e
a
kp=0.067
p=0.2
p=0.4
p=1.2
p=2.667
p=6.667
p=13.333
p=20.000
p=26.667
p=40.000
p=53.333
p=66.667
p=91.333
p=101.333

Insulation thickness t = 0.4033 cm
100
1000
10000
100000
1000000
10000000
0.01 0.1 1 10
Int erface gap t ', cm
I
n
c
e
p
t
i
o
n

v
o
l
t
a
g
e

V
i
,

V
o
l
t
s
-
p
e
a
k
p=0.067
p=0.2
p=0.4
p=1.2
p=2.667
p=6.667
p=13.3333
p=20.000
p=26.667
p=40.000
p=53.333
p=66.667
p=91.333
p=101.333

Insulation thickness t = 0.6545 cm
100
1000
10000
100000
1000000
10000000
0.01 0.1 1 10
Int erface gap t', cm
I
n
c
e
p
t
i
o
n

V
o
l
t
a
g
e

V
i
,

V
o
l
t
s
-
p
e
a
kp=0.067
p=0.2
p=0.4
p=1.2
p=2.667
p=6.667
p=13.333
p=20.00
p=26.667
p=40.00
p=53.33
p=66.667
p=91.333
p=101.333

Fig. 2: Computed values of PDIV for discharges at the
interface at pressures of 101.333, 91.333,66.667, 40.0, 26.667,
20.0, 13.333, 6.667, 2.667, 1.2, 0.40, 0.20 & 0.067 in kPa
Insulation thickness t = 0.1454 cm
100
1000
10000
100000
1000000
0.01 0.1 1 10
Cavit y dept h t', cm
I
n
c
e
p
t
i
o
n

V
o
l
t
a
g
e

V
i
,

V
o
l
t
s
-
p
e
a
k
p=0.067
p=0.2
p=0.4
p=1.2
p=2.667
p=6.667
p=13.333
p=20.000
p=26.667
p=40.000
p=53.333
p=66.667
p=91.3333
p=101.333

Insulation thickness t = 0.3220 cm
100
1000
10000
100000
1000000
0.01 0.1 1 10
Cavity dept h t ', cm
i
n
c
e
p
t
i
o
n

V
o
l
t
a
g
e

V
i
,

V
o
l
t
s
-
p
e
a
kp=0.067
p=0.2
p=0.4
p=1.2
p=2.667
p=6.667
p=13.3333
p=20.000
p=26.667
p=40.000
p=53.333
p=66.667
p=91.333
p=101.333

Insulation thickness t = 0.4033 cm
100
10 00
100 00
1000 00
10000 00
0.01 0.1 1 10
Cavit y dept h t ', cm
I
n
c
e
p
t
i
o
n

v
o
l
t
a
g
e

V
i
,

V
o
l
t
s
-
p
e
a
k
p=0.067
p=0.2
p=0.4
p=1.2
p=2.667
p=6.667
p=13.333
p=20.000
p=26.667
p=40.000
p=53.333
p=66.667
p=91.333
p=101.333

Insulation thickness t = 0.6545 cm
100
1000
10000
100000
10 00000
0.01 0.1 1 10
Cavit y dept h t '. cm
I
n
c
e
p
t
i
o
n

V
o
l
t
a
g
e

V
i
,

V
o
l
t
s
-
p
e
a
kp=0.067
p=0.2
p=0.4
p=1.2
p=2.667
p=6.667
p=13.333
p=20.000
p=26.667
p=40.000
p=53.333
p=66.667
p=91.333
p=101.333

Fig. 3: Computed values of PDIV for discharges in cavities at
pressures of 101.333, 91.333, 66.667, 40.0, 26.667, 20.0,
13.333, 6.667, 2.667, 1.2, 0.40, 0.20 & 0.067 in kPa
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6
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6
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Discharge Inception Voltage at Different Pressures,
Proc. 2003 IASTED International Conference on
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Pressures in the Ambient Medium of N2, Accepted for
publication at IEEE PES Transmission & Distribution
Conference and Exposition, Chicago, USA from April 21-
24, 2008.