Time Delay from Corona to Breakdown

Technical Report · Tue Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1504848· OSTI ID:1504848

Zutavern, Fred J. ^[1]; Wallace, Zachariah Red ^[1]

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1. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Laser Applications, Electrical Science and Experiments

This report describes measurements of the time delay between the onset of corona and complete electrical breakdown between a point and a plane in dry air near atmospheric pressure as a function of the distance between the point and the plane. The large variation in these time delays is representative of the stochastic nature of electrical breakdown and the many possible phenomena that occur between the initiation and completion of electrical breakdown, including initiation without complete electrical breakdown. The purpose of this work is to provide data which will be accurately modeled when a model contains the appropriate mechanisms with the proper priorities to describe this fundamental electrical breakdown configuration. The acquisition of these measurements completes a level three milestone for the WSEAT program which sponsors this research. Also included in this report is a description of our plans to “automate” the experimental procedure, protect the high sensitivity fast-gated camera, and add diagnostics and new experimental techniques to the test facility. This will provide measurements of the time delay distributions with improved statistics and additional experimental information about the processes that occur during electrical breakdown.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Office of Defense Science (NA-113)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 1504848
• Report Number(s): SAND--2015-7700; 603798
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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