The Journal of Engineering

The 14th IET International Conference on AC and DC Power

Transmission (ACDC 2018)

Study on the influence of rainfall on the eISSN 2051-3305

Received on 23rd August 2018
Accepted on 19th September 2018
electric field distribution and switching E-First on 17th December 2018
doi: 10.1049/joe.2018.8535
impulse voltage of large-size sphere–plane www.ietdl.org

gap
Feifan Zhou1, Yujian Ding2 , Shenghui Wang1, Xiuyuan Yao2, Fangcheng Lv1
1School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering in North China Electric Power University, Changping District of Beijing, People's Republic of

China
2China Electric Power Research Institute, Haidian District of Beijing, People's Republic of China

E-mail: dingyj@epri.sgcc.com.cn

Abstract: Previously, the research about the influence of rainfall on the discharge characteristics of the gap mainly focused on
the severe non-uniform electric field gap such as rod–plane, rod–rod, or tower head of which the electrode size was generally
small. As the DC voltage level increases, the size of the fitting at the end of the device further increases. As a result, the impact
of rain on the discharge characteristics would have significant changes. In this study, the influence of rainwater on the electric
field distribution characteristics of the sphere–plane air gap was simulated and the electric field distortion characteristic formed
by the rain collected at the bottom of the fitting was obtained. Then, the impulse discharge test of the fitting under different
rainfalls was conducted from which the influence of different rainfall on the impulse discharge voltage of sphere–plane gap was
analysed. The research results can be used to optimise the design of the end fittings of outdoor DC field equipment.

1 Introduction
Domestic and foreign scholars have carried out extensive research
on the electric field distribution and discharge characteristics of
long gaps under dry conditions. Research on the breakdown
characteristics and breakdown mechanism of gaps in the presence
of water droplets has also made great progress [1]. The research on
the breakdown characteristics of the air gap under the transmission
line mainly focuses on the severe non-uniform electric field gap
such as the typical rod–plate, rod–rod gap or tower gap. With the
increase of DC transmission voltage level, the size of the fitting in
converter station has also increased significantly, and the impact
rule of rain on the switching impact voltage of large-size fitting are
quite different from the typical rod–plane, rod–rod gap. When
rainfall, especially rainstorm, the end of electrical fittings will form
a water column which shortens the distance of insulated clearance
and caused the discharge of the clearance. However, so far, there
are few researches on the breakdown characteristics of air gap
when the water column is formed at the electrode tip under the
condition of rain. At the same time, due to the lack of breakdown
test data of air gap in the rain, at home and abroad nobody have
developed breakdown voltage correction methods and design
standards for the air gap under the conditions of rain. In addition,
there are few researches on the breakdown model of air gap under
heavy rain at home and abroad, especially the breakdown model of
air gap when the water column exists in the gap [1].
From 1975 to 1976, Rizk studied the effect of rainfall on the
rod–plane gap and found that heavy rains reduced U50 severely and
the effect weakened as the gap distance increased [2]. Georgis
pointed out by experiment that larger the radius of uncharged
moving water droplets in space, smaller the corona start voltage
and breakdown fields [3]. Sun [1, 3] studied the discharge
characteristics of the insulator under the rainy condition, obtained
the distortion effect of the rain on the space electric field, and
pointed out that the rainfall will greatly reduce the breakdown
voltage. Wu [2] studied the impact of rainfall on transmission lines,
and discussed the discharge mechanism of lightning flashover on
transmission lines. In [4–6], the influence of rain on the discharge
characteristics of the rod–plane short air gap was studied, and the
effect of rainfall on the discharge characteristics of small size
electrodes was obtained. Wang et al. [7] described the effect of rain
on the discharge characteristics of a smoothing reactor through
model simulation. However, few researches have study the
influence of rainfall on the discharge characteristics of long air gap
of large size electrode.
In this paper, for the spherical electrode, the distribution of the
electric field around the sphere electrode is simulated firstly. Then
the switching impulse discharge test of the fitting under different
rainfall conditions is carried out. The effect of rain on the discharge
voltage is analysed. The research results provide the basis for the
design and optimization of the equipment in converter station [2].
2 Effect of rainfall on the electric field distribution
of the sphere–plane gap
2.1 Simulation model
Now use COMSOL to establish a electrostatic field model of
steady state, a spherical electrode with a diameter of 2 m which
fixed by the tube with a diameter of 300 mm vertically arranged in
a cylindrical standard atmosphere space, of which the air relative
dielectric constant is 1, the distance between the spherical electrode
and the ground surface is 3 m. The spherical electrode potential
was set to 1100 kV and the edge of the cylindrical space was
grounded. By observing the accumulation state of water on the
electrode under different rainfall intensities, a simulation model
was established, of which the relative permittivity of rainwater was
set to 81. When the rainfall intensity was not large, the rainwater
adhering on the electrode fell under the action of gravity and the
water film first became circular. The raindrops then changed to
elliptical raindrops and then fell due to that their own gravitational
force greater than their adhesion to the bottom of the spherical
electrode [4], and the diameters of raindrop ranged from 10 to 20 
mm. When the rainfall intensity increases to a certain extent, the
accumulation of rainwater on the spherical electrode will also
increase a lot. Under the action of gravity, they will accumulate to
the end of the electrode quickly and will transform into a
continuous expanding water column.
The above simulation does the following assumptions:

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Fig. 1  Formation of water column in the rain
Fig. 2  Electric field distribution of dry spherical electrode
Fig. 3  Curve of electric field distribution of dry spherical electrode
i. The impact of the amount of charge brought by raindrops is not
taken into account.
ii. Ignoring the influence of electric field forces and all unrelated
external forces on the shapes of raindrops, water films or water
columns, that is to say, assuming that the raindrops, water films
or water columns in the electric field will not be deformed or
broken.
iii. It is assumed that there is still a high degree of symmetry in the
sphere–plane gap after adding raindrops, water films and water
columns, that is to say, the asymmetry factor is ignored in the
model (Fig. 1).
2.2 Electric field distribution and potential distribution of the
surface of the spherical electrode under dry condition
As shown in Fig. 2, the electric field distribution and potential
distribution of the air gap in dry state from the simulation results
(Fig. 3).
J. Eng., 2019, Vol. 2019 Iss. 16, pp. 2748-2752
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Fig. 4  Potential distribution of dry spherical electrode
Fig. 5  Curve of potential distribution of dry spherical electrode
The distribution of the electric field in the long air gap of the
dry spherical electrode is not uniform, and the electric field
decreases rapidly near the electrode. The electric field intensity
near the spherical electrode is 13.73 kV/cm, which is not easy to
cause discharge at this time (Figs. 4 and 5).
Under the dry condition, the drop of potential of the air gap
from the spherical electrode to the earth is relatively gentle, on
which no large potential mutation, so that the breakdown is not
easy to occur.
2.3 Electric field distribution on the surface of the spherical
electrode under the rain
To study the influence of rain on the electric field distribution of
the surface of the spherical electrode, the droplet model and the
water column model were added to the dry spherical electrode
model. As shown below are the surface electric field distribution of
the electrode in the rainy condition when the rainfall intensity is
different.
When the rainfall is small, rainwater pool to the bottom surface
of the spherical electrode and drip. The electric field strength on
the spherical surface is as shown in Fig. 6, of which the
background field strength is 11.97 kV/cm, the bottom field strength
is 34.23 kV/cm. It can be seen that the water drop located in the
electric field will cause the change of field strength and the surface
field of drop will jump to three times of the original field strength.
The degree of the distortion of electric field around water drop will
increase with the increase of diameter of raindrop [5–7]. The field
strength inside rainwater is 6.06 × 10−4 kV/cm, which is due to the
fact that the relative dielectric constant of rainwater is larger than
that of air. According to ɛ1E1 = ɛ2E2, the local electric field strength
inside rainwater is small.
Under rainstorm, the rainwater collected at the bottom of the
spherical electrode formed a water column. As shown in Fig. 7, the
existence of water column distorted the electric field so that the
electric field distribution was extremely uneven. At this time, the
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Fig. 6  Electric field distribution of spherical electrode in light rain
Fig. 7  Electric field distribution of spherical electrode in rainstorm
Fig. 8  Curve of electric field distribution of spherical electrode in different
rainfall intensity
field strength at the tip of water column was 45.45 kV/cm, three
times of the background field strength.
It can be seen from Fig. 8, the graph of the electric field
distribution of the spherical electrode in different states. Compared
with the dry state, the electric field of the air gap from the spherical
electrode to the ground has a greater distortion in the rainy state.
The greater the rainfall intensity, the greater the degree of electric
field distortion. The distortion concentrated in the vicinity of the
electrode. When the vertical distance away from the electrode >1  64.16% under heavy rain condition. When the clearance is 4 m, the
m, the electric field distortion is very slight.
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3 Impact of rainfall on the switching impulse
discharge of sphere–plane air gap
3.1 Layout of the test
In order to further study the influence of rainfall on the discharge
characteristics of large-size sphere fittings, and to verify the
simulation results of the electric field distribution, the experimental
study on the switching impulse discharge characteristics of the
typical fittings under the rain condition was conducted. Select the
sphere with diameter of 2 m, 1.3 m under dry and rainy conditions
to conduct +1100 kV switching impulse discharge characteristics
test.The spherical electrode is vertically suspended by the tubular
bus of which the diameter is 300 mm, and the upper end of the
tubular bus is connected to the gate tower through the insulator.
The high-voltage lead is connected the spherical electrode through
the tubular bus to a set of 6 MV/450 kJ impulse voltage generator
and supplementary 6 MV impulse voltage divider measuring
system. The photo of 6 MV/450 kJ impulse voltage generator and
voltage divider is shown in Fig. 9.
Select the typical clearance 2, 4, and 6 m for the test of which a
rainwater spray is placed to simulate rainfall, by controlling the
rainwater spray to change the rainfall intensity. Site layout is
shown in Fig. 10.
3.2 Experiment method
In the experiment, the test environment was changed by adjusting
the distance between the electrode and ground and the rainwater
spray. Using the method of raising and lowering voltage to obtain
the 50% switching impulse voltage of different gap distance [8].
i. The test voltage waveform is a 250/2500 µs positive polarity
standard switching impulse wave. The wavefront time of
output standard switching impulse voltage is 250 µs of which
the tail time is (2500 ± 200) µs. The efficiency of the output
voltage of the switching wave is ≥70%.
ii. Using the method of raising and lowering voltage to obtain
50% discharge voltage U50 whose formula is as follows:
U50 = Σ ni × Ui /n (1)
where Ui is the applied voltage, kV; ni the number of tests at
the same applied voltage Ui; and n the total number of valid
tests.
iii. The standard deviation σ of the test is calculated according to
the following formula:
2
Σ Ui − U50
δ= (2)
n−1
Test data is corrected to that under standard temperature conditions
by using g parameter calibration method.
3.3 Influence of rainfall to discharge voltage of the sphere–
plane system
The test data measured in the experiment is shown in the graph of
Fig. 11 below.
The test results shown in Fig. 11 shows that the discharge
voltage of spherical electrode drops significantly under rainy
conditions. The discharge voltage of sphere in 2 m gap with
diameter of 2 m under the rainstorm state drop by 70.00%
compared to dry state, the discharge voltage of 4 m gap decreased
by 54.17% when under rainstorm compared with the dry state. The
discharge voltage of the sphere electrode in 6 m gap dropped by
53.54% under the condition of rainstorm. When the diameter of
sphere in 2 m gap under light rain is 1.3 m, the discharge voltage
decreased by 90.00% compared with that under dry condition and
discharge voltage drops by 45.42% under the condition of light
rain, decreased by 51.51% under the condition of heavy rain. For 6 
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Fig. 9  Impulse voltage generator and divider
Fig. 10  Site layout of discharge test of the electrode in the rainfall
Fig. 11  Breakdown voltage at different rainfall intensities
m gap, down 36.14% under the condition of light rain and down
38.46% under the condition of heavy rain.
The breakdown voltage of the sphere in rain fell by about half
of that in the dry state. The smaller the gap distance, the larger the
decreasing range of U50; the greater the rainfall intensity, the larger
the decreasing range of U50; the larger the size of the fitting, the
more serious the impact of the rain to discharge characteristics of
the fitting is [9].
3.4 Impact of rainfall on the discharge path of spherical
electrode
Liquid rainwater as a source of electron emission played a
‘guiding’ role in the development of the streamer, and led to a
decrease of the threshold of the discharge from the streamer to a
spark discharge and an increase in the rate of streamer development
[10]. In addition, the water column formed under heavy rainfall
severely distorted the electric field in the clearance, and formed a
significant defect on the surface of the sphere which is the part of
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the air gap where the discharge is most likely to occur. Therefore,
the discharge path always extends along the path of the water
column, that is to say, water column played a ‘drainage’ role for
the breakdown path [11].
3.5 Mechanism of the impact of rainfall on discharge
characteristics of large-size sphere–plane clearance
The presence of liquid media in the gap, such as rainwater, can
alter the discharge mechanism of the gap and increase the rate of
streamer development [10]. This paper argues that the main reason
for the decrease of breakdown voltage is the distortion of the
electric field caused by the rain, which makes the electric field
environment in the gap more conducive to the generation and
development of electron avalanche and streamer. On the other
hand, the droplets will catch electron during the development of
discharge to suppress the development of discharge. Therefore,
when the rain is small, the diameter of the raindrop is small, which
has little effect on the distortion of the electric field in the air gap.
The influence of the raindrop on the breakdown voltage may even
be lower than that of the absolute humidity on the discharge
voltage.
As the rainfall intensity increases, the number of raindrops
continues to increase, the duty cycle of raindrops, and the total
raindrops are increasing, so the effect of rainfall on the sphere–
plane air gap will also increase significantly. When the rainfall
intensity continues to increase, the water droplets will gradually
gather to turn into a water column. Due to the further increase of
conductivity of rainwater after scouring the fittings, the existence
of water column is equivalent to the extension of the electrode,
which shortened the insulation distance and caused more severe
electric field distortion, resulting in a significant decrease of the
breakdown voltage of the gap.
4 Conclusion
i. Compared with the dry state, there is a great distortion in the
rainy condition of the electric field in the clearance from
sphere to the ground. The distortion mainly concentrates in the
vertical height of 1 m away from the electrode. The field
intensity of outer surface of raindrop jumps to three times of
that in dry conduction, and the field strength of tip of the water
column in rainstorm jumps to four times of that in dry
condition.
ii. Rainfall causes the dramatical decrease of the discharge
voltage of the clearance. When the rainfall intensity is not
large, the water on the electrode gather at the end of the sphere
and drip. The shorter the gap distance is, the more significant
the impact is. The percentage of voltage drop in 2 m gap is
almost two times of that in 4 m gap and three times of that in 6 
m gap.
iii. When the rainfall reaches a certain intensity, the bottom of the
spherical electrode will form a water column. The existence of
water column plays the role of guiding the discharge path and
further reduces the breakdown voltage. The larger the size of
the fitting, the more significant the decrease of U50 is. For the
same size fitting, the greater the distance to ground, the smaller
the impact of rainfall. The smallest influence to U50 only
caused about decrease of 30%. It can be seen from that the
discharge voltage of 1.3 m sphere in 6 m clearance has nothing
to do with the intensity of the rainfall. So when the clearance
distance compared with the size of the fitting oversized, the
impact of rainfall intensity decreases.
5 Acknowledgments
This article has been supported by the Beijing Nova Program
(Z171100001117086) and the Science and Technology Project
‘Study on Surface Defect Effect and Altitude Correction of Large
Size Electrode Gap Discharge Characteristics in Valves Hall of
Converter Stations’ and other projects funded by the State Grid
Corporation of China.
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