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Breakdown Characteristics of Sphere to Sphere Electrodes as influenced by

Harsh Environment

Conference Paper · December 2015

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Ghareeb Moustaffa Mohamed B. A. Zahran

Suez Canal University Electronics Research Institute
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 Breakdown characteristic of Sphere to sphere Electrode as
influenced by harsh environment
Ghareeb Moustafa 1,2 Mohamed Zahran3
1. Electrical Eng. Dept. Faculty of Engineering, Jazan University, Jazan , Saudi Arabia,
2. Electrical Eng. Dept. Faculty of Engineering, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt,
3. Electronics Research Institute, Photovoltaic Cells Departments, NRC Blg., El- , Egypt,
4. Electrical Eng. Dept. Faculty of Engineering, Assiut University, 71516 Egypt,
Ghareeb_moustafa@eng.suez.edu.eg mbazahran_2007@yahoo.com
Abstract - In Saudi Arabia, the transmission lines are often
subjected to the Sandstorm desert. This can lead to serious
reduction in insulator effectiveness, resulting in flashovers and
outages of electricity supply. In This paper, the breakdown
characteristics of sphere-to-sphere gap with dust particles in
atmospheric air are investigated experimentally to provide
fundamental parameters determining the breakdown voltage in
desert condition around DC and AC power apparatus by air
insulation. The effect of size and concentration of dust particles
are investigated. Experimental results shows that the dust
particle with large size has no effect on the breakdown voltage,
On the contrary, the dust particle with small size have a
significant impact on the breakdown voltage, further more
increase the dust concentration in the case of small dust size case
a reduction on breakdown voltage this reductions are due to the
dust layer deposit on the electrode surface
Index Terms - sand-dust, storm. Breakdown, corona discharge
I. INTRODUCTION
Air is the insulating ambient most commonly used in
electrical insulation. Bus-bars of distribution networks,
conductors of transmission lines, high voltage leads of
transformer, circuit breaker and other apparatus are insulated
from one another by air spaces. Among its greatest assist, in
addition to its abundance, is its self-restoring capability after
breakdown.
The insulating air gaps of high voltage electrical devices
which are used in desert areas have been operated in quite
different, clean air conditions. The grain of Dust particle in an
electric field creates a new condition for distribution of the
electric field and ignition and development of the electrical
discharge [1] [2] [3] [4].
In order to develop large power transmission line, always
passing through desert, it is necessary to know the breakdown
performance of air gaps containing dust (with different
concentration) in addition to that without dust ( clean air) ,
because the equipment is insulated in open air subjected to this
kind of atmosphere.
Saudi Arabia is a region of complex topography and
extensive deserts [5]. Desert regions that can potentially serve
as dust source regions, there are a few reports on frequent
outdoor insulation accidents caused by sandstorms or sand
dust weather in Saudi Arabia [6] [7], In sandstorm areas, it
Ali M. Yousef4
drali_yousef@yahoo.com
have been noted that electric field and the electromagnetic
interference phenomenon caused by sandstorms [8] [9] [10]
[11] As a result of the charge transfer caused by sand friction,
thecharged sand particles can form space charge regions
which can have an effect on the discharge characteristics of air
gaps and insulators [12] [13].
The electrical breakdown and partial discharge of clean and
dusty air gaps have been thoroughly investigated in many
paper [8] [2] [10], however very limited number of research
have been done to investigate the effect of sand size on
breakdown and partial discharge voltage of air gaps.
The objective of the present work is to investigate in an
experimental study the breakdown characteristics of sphere-to-
sphere gap with and without dust in atmospheric air to provide
fundamental parameters determining the breakdown voltage in
the presence of dust with different concentration around DC
and AC power apparatus by air insulation
.
II. EXPERIMENTAL DETALS
A. Dust Separation
In terms of stage division, sand-dust weather can be
divided into 5 grades such as floating dust, sand blowing,
sand-dust storm, severe sand-dust storm and super sand-dust
storm depending on sand size and wind force [8].
The dust were collected from Jazan - Saudi Arabia desert
and separated by using sand sieve device Figure 1 Sand sieve
is highly efficient device. It can screen sand into multiple
levels products according to the different materials grain size.
The machine is to drive vibratory so that the screen body
along the vibrating power direction to make a cyclical
reciprocating, the material in the screen surface make round
movement, so as to make the sand sieved, up to six different
sand diameter sizes can be sample at a time namely 315 µm,
212 µm, 150 µm, 106 µm, 63 µm and less than 63 µm.
B. Test chamber
This study was carried out in a small enclosed chamber,
Figure 2 . The chamber containing the Two sphere electrode
and has two holes for dust inlet (upper hole) and dust outlet
(lower hole).
 Regulator H.V Measuring Test Room
Control Unit Supply
transformer Transformer Capacitor
220volt

A VP VS

VP VS
Control
buttons

220-0/220volt 220 /120000 Volt

Figure 3: Wiring diagram of AC test circuit.

Test
H.V Measuring Rectifier Smoothing Measuring
Control Unit Supply Regulator Room
Transformer Capacitor Capacitor Resistor
220volt transformer
Figure 1: dust separation device
A VP VS
Test Room
VP VS
H.V Control
Terminal buttons
Dust In

220-0/220volt 220 /120000 Volt

Two
Sphere

Figure 4: Wiring diagram of DC test circuit.

Ground Blower
Terminal

Dust Out Air

Direction
Dust Holder

Figure 2: The schematic diagram of test chamber

C. Circuit Diagram for Ac and DC breakdown Test :
The schematic diagram of the experimental setup for AC
and DC circuit test are shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4
respectively, Figure 5 shows a photograph for the
experimental apparatus which used in the experiments to
measure the breakdown voltage under AC and DC conditions.
In the experiments, the electrode system was arranged Figure 5: photograph for Test circuit
vertically the main electrode system consists of two spheres .
and the gap length was changed in the range of 1 to 90 mm. III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
D. Experimental procedure A. Effect Of Dust Presence
The AC power supply used was capable of supplying
Figure 6 gives the experimental results of the relation
peak voltage up to 140 kV, and DC power supply used was
between the breakdown voltage and the gap distance which is
capable of supplying r.m.s voltage up to 280 kV, the applied
to be varied up to 80 mm in DC voltage and 50 mm in AC
voltage was raised at the rate of 5 kv/s until breakdown
voltage without and with dust particle with different radius
occurs. Approximately two minute’s interval was allowed
namely 212 µm and 63 µm the curves obtained for both AC
between each two successive breakdown for refreshing air and
and DC voltage. From the results it can be deduced that the
vanishing the space charge. During this interval the circulated
presence of large dust particle have no effect on the break
dust does not stopped The breakdown voltage plotted in the
down voltage, On the other hand when small dust size are
figures is determined as the mean value of at least ten
blowing in the air gape reduce the breakdown voltage and this
breakdown voltages. After each set of experiment the room
reduction increase with increasing gap distance between the
and sphere are clean befor begining onother set.
two electrode for all voltage type.
 B. Effect Of Dust Size

140 Figure 7 a, b and c shows a plot of breakdown voltage as a

Clean air function of gap spacing between two electrodes at different
120
With dust d= 212 µm dust size radius of 212 µm, 150 µm, 63 µm and less than
Breakdown voltage (kv)

100 With dust d= 63 µm 63µm respectively. The experiments have been carried out at
AC voltage and positive and negative polarity under DC
80
voltage. It is clear from the figures that breakdown voltage
60 decreased when the dust size decreased and its value is higher
in case of negative polarity than positive polarity in case of
40
DC voltage.
20 The breakdown voltage with large dust particle (212 µm)
has the same value as the break down voltage for clean air,
0
with a small reducing in particle size (150 µm) a small
0 20 40 60 80 100
reduction on breakdown voltage are observed, when dust
Distance (mm)
particle with a very small size ( 63 µm and less than 63 µm )
Figure 6-a
were used a very large reduction on break down voltage were
140 observed. This phenomenon can be explained, as at large dust
Clean air size the dust are injection on the test room and will not
120 With dust d= 212 µm suspend on air or deposit on the electrode surface this make its
100
With dust d= 63 µm effect on breakdown voltage are not noticeable, On the
Breakdown voltage (kv)

contrary, with very small dust particle the dust are fill all the
80 room space and suspended on the air , some of them are
deposit on the electrode the suspend and deposit dust causes
60 distortion on electric field this distortion reduce the break
down voltage by different values depending on the degree of
40
electric field uniformity.
20
C. Effect Of Dust Concentration
0 Figure 8 shows the relation between breakdown voltage and
0 20 40 60 80 100 dust concentration, two concentration level of 1 mg/cm3
Distance (mm) denoted by (1) in figure 8, 2 mg/cm3 denoted by (1) in figure
Figure 6-b
8. are used with two different dust size namely 63 µm and less
than 63 µm, from the figures It is clear that breakdown
100
voltage decrease with increasing dust concentration when
90 Clean air
small dust size are used and this reduction increase with
With dust d= 212 µm
80 increasing gap spacing between the two electrode.
With dust d= 63 µm
Breakdown voltage (kv)

70 Although every set of Experiment carried out in the same

60 day to have the same Environmental condition, unexpected
breakdown voltage are recorded, the reduction in breakdown
50
voltage in the case of long gap distance is highr than that
40
occure in short distance, this are attributed to the dust deposit
30 on the electrode surface during the Experiment, always we
20 start from 10 mm and increase distance to 80 mm and air are
10 blowing in the room during the test period, so the dust deposit
0 on the sphere surface increase with increasing distance.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Distance (mm)
Figure 6-c
Figure 6: Breakdown voltage as a function of gap distance with and
without dust (a) Positive DC voltage (b) Negative DC voltage (C) AC voltage
 120
140

120 100

Breakdown voltage (kv)

Breakdown voltage (kv)

100 80

80
60
60 With dust d= 63 µm (1)
40
With dust d= 212 With dust d= 63 µm (2)
40
µm With dust d< 63 µm (1)
20
20 With dust d= 150 With dust d<63 µm (2)
µm
0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
Distance (mm)
Distance (mm)

Figure 8-a
Figure 7-a
120
120
100
100
Breakdown voltage (kv)

Breakdown voltage (kv)

80
80

60 60
With dust d= 63 µm (1)
40 With dust d= 212 µm 40 With dust d= 63 µm (2)
With dust d= 150 µm
20 With dust d= 63 µm With dust d< 63 µm (1)
20
With dust d< 63 µm With dust d<63 µm (2)
0
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
Distance (mm) Distance (mm)
Figure 8-b

Figure 7-b –ve 90

100
80
90
70
80
Breakdown voltage (kv)
Breakdown voltage (kv)

70 60
60 50
50
40
40 With dust d= 63 µm (1)
30
30 With dust d= 63 µm (2)
With dust d= 212 µm
20 With dust d= 150 µm 20
With dust d< 63 µm (1)
10 With dust d= 63 µm
With dust d< 63 µm 10
With dust d<63 µm (2)
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Distance (mm)
Distance (mm)

Figure 7-c Figure 8-c

Figure 7: Breakdown voltage as a function of gap distance with dust at Figure 8: Breakdown voltage as a function of gap distance with dust at
different dust size (a) Positive DC voltage (b) Negative DC voltage different concentration (a) Positive DC voltage (b) Negative DC voltage
(C) AC voltage (C) Ac voltage
 Effect Of deposit dust layer
D.
To examine the effect of the deposit dust layer on the
breakdown voltage, the experiment were repeated after
finishing the set of experiment for the second concentration of
dust size <36 µm, without any compressed air in the test room
and the dust layer deposit on the electrode surface have been
kept without clean. The results are plotting on Figure 9,
comparing this results with that obtaining on Figure 8 one can
deduce that the dust layer deposit on the electrode is the main
reason for reducing the breakdown voltage this is very clear
from the reduction in breakdown voltage observed on short
gap distance on this set of experemint.
120
100 Dust size < 63 µm
Breakdown voltage (kv)
80
60
40
positive polarity
20 Negative polarity
AC
0 Conference on Emerging Technologies Peshawar,
0 20 40 60 80 100
Distance (mm)
Figure 9: Breakdown voltage as a function of gap distance with dust layer on
the electrode surface.
IV. Conclusions
In this work, the influence of dust particles of different size
with different concentration on breakdown characteristics was
studied experimentally under direct and alternating high
voltages. A sphere-to-sphere gap was used as a main gap. The
results may be summarized as follows:
1. The presence of dust particles has a great effect in
reducing the breakdown voltage and this reduction
decreases with decreasing the electrode spacing.
2. The breakdown voltage of a sphere-to-sphere gap
with dust particle in atmospheric air is seriously
affected by the dust size and dust concentration.
3. The discharge of the air gap mainly depends on the
sand dust deposited on the electrode rather Than the
floating sand dust.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors are grateful to Deanship of Scientific Research in
Jazan University – Saudi Arabia for providing the financial
support through their applied research.
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