Critical Flash Over of a sphere gap using IVG

Introduction:There is a statistical nature associated with the breakdown /flashover voltages of

insulating structures under impulse voltages. The breakdown is known to follow a
Gaussian distribution. The standard deviation of this distribution varies with the
wave shape, gap geometry, and atmospheric conditions The impulse breakdown
voltages are thus specified by a Critical Flash Over Voltage (CFO) or the mean
value i.e. 50 % probability of flashover.

Theory:The CFO of any insulating material or system is defined as the crest value of
a standard impulse (under specified conditions) for which the insulation exhibits
50% probability of withstand (or 50% probability of failure).
The CFO can be measured through different types of laboratory methods. The up
and down method was used to evaluate the CFO voltage of an insulation structure
and it is described in IEEE Standard 4-1995. The second more commonly used
method is the Regression method. In this method, one starts with a Voltage V, that
is sufficiently low, so that no breakdown occurs. 10 pulses are applied and then
number of breakdowns, if any are noted. Next, the voltage is increased by 10% and
10 pulses are applied and the number of breakdowns noted. The experiment is
repeated by progressively increasing the voltage, till the breakdown occurs for all
the applied pulses. At each voltage level, the probability of breakdown is
calculated as No of Breakdowns/ No of pulses applied. A graph of Probability of
breakdown vs the applied voltage is plotted. The voltage corresponding to 50% is
extracted from the graph. This value is reckoned as the critical flash over voltage
for the given insulation.

Objectives of CFO: To determine the Critical Flash Over Voltage of a Sphere Gap Assembly
under varying atmospheric conditions.

Circuit Diagram:-

Impulse
Voltage Generator 600 kV
18 kJ
3,
50z
400V
Controller

75
CRO
75

Procedure to do the Experiment

1. When the page gets loaded the value of Diameter of the sphere should be
choosen from the displayed dropdown box.
2. The sphere gap distance values gets populated in response to the selected
sphere diameter in another drop down and one of the value should be
selected.
3. The type of polarity should be choosen.
4. The Temperature and pressure values should be mentioned in the
corresponding text boxes.
5. The Setup_IVG button is clicked to display the Applied Voltage values dropdown box and the no.of pulses to be applied on the voltage in the form of
radio buttons.

6. The enabled Applied Voltage value(kV) is selected from the displayed drop
down box.
7. The pulses are applied on the selected voltage value by selecting the enabled
radio button one at a time.
8. The fact that Breakdown has occurred or not is displayed by the flash object.
9. The Break-down probability for each voltage level is calculated as Number
of pulses break-down divided by Total Number of pulses.
10.Steps 7 & 8 are repeated for next enabled pulse.
11.Steps 6,7 & 8 are repeated for all applied voltage values to complete the
Experiment.
12.The show Graph button will be displayed at the end of the experiment.
13.The button is clicked to display the variation of the Applied Voltage versus
the Breakdown probability.
14.The critical flash over voltage value (for given sphere diameter and gap
spacing) namely the voltage value for 50% probability of breakdown is
displayed prominently on the graph.
Table I
Record of Flashover
Diameter of Sphere: 50 cm

Room Temperature: 24 oC

Sphere gap distance: 7.5 cm

Air Pressure: 76 cm of Hg

Type of Voltage: +ve Polarity

Voltage Level/
Stage kV
166.87
176.69
186.5

Pulse No.
1
W
W
B

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
W W W W W W W W W
W B W W W W W B W
W B W W W W B B W

# B- Breakdown W- Withstand

For Normal Condition:-

For No of pulses Breakdown:-

For No of Pluses Withstand:-