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Title: Fault analysis in gas-insulated equipment. Final report

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5240551

The results of a study on fault location techniques and damage analysis in Gas Insulated Substations (GIS) are presented. The objectives of the EPRI sponsored project are to gain a better understanding of in-service faults in GIS, to investigate the feasibility of thermal and electromagnetic techniques for locating faults and to develop prototype instrumentations for fault locations in GIS. The techniques developed and the information obtained in this project will be valuable to the maintenance engineer to plan for fast clean-up and repair after a fault, avoiding costly system downtime. The origins of the fast transient phenomena associated with initial breakdown of the gas and the thermal signature of the power arc after fault initiation in GIS were investigated with special emphasis to its application to fault location. The applications of an infrared, thermal imaging system and temperature sensitive paint to locate in-service faults with power follow-through were demonstrated, and an IR fault location system was developed. Both techniques are non-invasive and require no modification of existing GIS. Dynamic arc behaviour in a co-axial geometry and the thermal phenomena, such as pressure rise and enclosure burn-through associated with a power arc fault were investigated. A systematic framework to predict burn-through probability based on fault current distribution was developed. A discussion on the fault consequences and the damage assessment techniques is included.

Research Organization:
Ontario Hydro, Toronto (Canada)
OSTI ID:
5240551
Report Number(s):
EPRI-EL-2248; ON: DE82901853
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Portions of document are illegible
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English