Fast pulse arcs in air

Technical Report · Mon Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:6920640

Williams, P F ^[1]

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1. Nebraska Univ., Lincoln, NE (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering

This report describes work accomplished under EPRI contract RP8012-08. The main focus of the research program is a primarily empirical study of the electrical breakdown of long, air-filled gaps. There has been a long history of study of electrical breakdown of gases, and the report starts with a brief review of this work. Then the design and operation of a high-voltage, fast-risetime pulse generator is described. The generator produces pulses of amplitude up to 150 kV, with risetime of 15--20 ns. Using this generator, we have obtained some preliminary high-speed, high-sensitivity streak and shutter photographs of the initial stages of breakdown of N[sub 2] and N[sub 2]O[sub 2]-filled, 12 cm non-uniform field gaps, and these results are presented. We find significantly different behavior in pure N[sub 2] than in mixtures containing a small amount of 0[sub 2]. The report concludes with the results we obtained on fast-pulse flashover of power pole insulators. We find that the voltage required to cause flashover of a wood insulator in 100 ns is about twice that required to induce flashover in 50 [mu]s, a standard'' lightning pulse duration. For the ceramic power distribution insulator (ANSI class 55-4) we studied, we were unable to induce flashover on the 100 ns time scale with the voltages available to us.

• Research Organization: Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States); Nebraska Univ., Lincoln, NE (United States). Dept. of Electrical Engineering
• Sponsoring Organization: EPRI; Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (United States)
• OSTI ID: 6920640
• Report Number(s): EPRI-TR-101794
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
240303* -- Power Transmission Lines & Cables-- Overhead Lines-- (1990-)
661300 -- Other Aspects of Physical Science-- (1992-)
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
AIR
BREAKDOWN
CURRENTS
ELECTRIC ARCS
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
ELECTRIC DISCHARGES
ELECTRICAL TRANSIENTS
FLUIDS
GASES
OVERHEAD POWER TRANSMISSION
POWER SUBSTATIONS
POWER TRANSMISSION
POWER TRANSMISSION LINES
PULSES
TRANSIENTS
VOLTAGE DROP