skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: The effect of initiatory electrons on breakdown characteristics in highly nonuniform gap

Conference ·
OSTI ID:529636
;  [1]
  1. Univ. of Strathclyde, Glasgow (United Kingdom). Centre for Electrical Power Engineering

Previous work has shown that the positive impulse breakdown voltage of SF{sub 6}, N{sub 2} and SF{sub 6}/N{sub 2} mixture in a point-plane gap is affected by the presence of space charge. With negative dc bias voltage on a corona needle arrangement external to the test gap, the impulse breakdown strength decreases significantly. This phenomenon has little to do with the electronegative properties of gases, since the same result is found in both electron-attaching and non-attaching gases. The reason was supposed to be the abundance of initiatory electrons resulting from detachment of plentiful negative ions injected. The aim of the present work is to confirm the above explanation. Experiments were carried out in air, SF{sub 6} and an SF{sub 6}/N{sub 2} mixture both with and without irradiation. The results show that with either artificial irradiation or a negative dc bias voltage, the impulse breakdown strength decreases. The present experimental results confirmed to a large extent that the breakdown strength of a non-uniform field gap is greatly affected by the availability of initiatory electrons within the gap volume.

OSTI ID:
529636
Report Number(s):
CONF-960614-; ISBN 0-7803-3531-7; TRN: IM9742%%125
Resource Relation:
Conference: 1996 IEEE international symposium on electrical insulation, Montreal (Canada), 16-19 Jun 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of Conference record of the 1996 IEEE international symposium on electrical insulation. Volume 2; PB: 477 p.
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English