Lecture# 06

High Voltage Engineering

By ATAUR RAHMAN
 GAS AS INSULATOR

• Air at Atm pressure is the most common gaseous insulation

• The air breakdown (BD) is considerable to the design engineers of

power trans. lines and power apparatus for ex. Bus-bar, conductor ,
Insulator.

• Breakdown occurs in gasses due to the process of collision ionization

• Gas can be used as one basic insulating material in (for Ex. cables,
condenser, apparatus in S/S)

By ATAUR RAHMAN
Gas used as insulation must satisfy the
following basic requirements as below:
• High dielectric strength,

• Thermal stability and chemical inactivity toward materials

of construction,

• Non-flammability and environmentally non hazard,

• Low temperature of condensation,

• Good heat transfer, and

• Ready availability at moderate cost

By ATAUR RAHMAN
 Advantages of Gas
insulation
• At high pressure provides a flexible and reliable medium

• The electric strength increases with increase in pressure

• At high pressure can be used field gradients up to 25 MV/m

• etc
Examples Gas insulation :
• N2 (Nitrogen)
• H2 (Hydrogen)
• CO2 (Carbon dioxide)
• CCl2F2 (Freon)
• SF6 (Sulphur hexafluoride)
By ATAUR RAHMAN
Townsend’s Theory:
This is the very popular theory in high voltage engineering.
It is designed by a scientist Townsend’s so for called Townsend’s Theory.
Why it is required:
This theory is basically used for the analysis of ionization process.
This theory predict the probability of secondary electrons formation.
Whenever a high voltage is applied to the gaseous dielectric medium
it becomes conducting medium, that is because of the presence of small
amount of current due to which the medium is getting conductive.
So we will have to identify this small amount of current which is formulating
inside the gaseous medium.
This small amount of current is calculating with the help of Townsend’s Theory.

By ATAUR RAHMAN
Calculation of current: A C
Let us consider two electrodes “A” Anode and
“c” cathode connected to high voltage source
When high voltage is applied between the electrodes
+ve ions and electrons formation take place.
This is mainly due to primary ionization.
When “n” no of electrons moves from cathode to some distance dx and give rises
To α𝑛𝑑𝑥 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑠
𝑑𝑛 = 𝛼𝑛𝑑𝑥
𝑑𝑛 𝑑𝑛
= 𝛼𝑑𝑥 −−−−− −𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑕𝑒𝑛 = 𝛼𝑑𝑥
𝑛 𝑛
𝑙𝑛 𝑛 = 𝛼𝑥 + 𝐴 𝑥 −− − 1
𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑥 = 0, 𝑛 = 𝑛0
ln 𝑛0 = 𝐴 𝑥 𝑝𝑢𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑕𝑖𝑠 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 1 𝑡𝑕𝑒𝑛
𝑙𝑛 𝑛 = 𝛼𝑥 + ln(𝑛0 )
𝑛
𝑙𝑛 = 𝛼𝑥 𝑖𝑓 𝑤𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡𝑕𝑒 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑛, 𝑛 = 𝑛0 𝑒 𝛼𝑥
𝑛0

By ATAUR RAHMAN
As the motion of electrons is called current therefore the equation
Will become
𝐼 = 𝐼0 𝑒 𝛼𝑥 𝑡𝑕𝑖𝑠 𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑙𝑠𝑜 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝑇𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑑 ′ 𝑠 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑡𝑕 𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
𝑕𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝛼 = 𝑇𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑑 ′ 𝑠 𝑃𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑧𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡
𝐸
𝛼∝
𝑃
Roles for +ve ions:
𝑛+
𝛾=
+𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠
+
𝑛 = 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑕𝑜𝑑𝑒 𝑑𝑢𝑒 𝑡𝑜 + 𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠
𝑛0 = 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑒𝑚𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑕𝑜𝑑𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦
𝑛 = 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑛𝑜 𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑟𝑜𝑛𝑠
𝑛 = 𝑛0 + 𝑛+
𝑛 = 𝑛0 + 𝑛+ 𝑒 𝛼𝑥 … … … … … … … . (1)
Total secondary electrons dissipating to gaseous dielectric =
= 𝑛 − 𝑛0 + 𝑛+
𝑛+ = 𝛾 𝑛 − 𝑛0 + 𝑛+
𝑛+ = 𝛾𝑛 − 𝛾𝑛0 − 𝛾𝑛+

By ATAUR RAHMAN
 𝑛+ 1 + 𝛾 = 𝛾 𝑛 − 𝑛0
𝛾 𝑛−𝑛0
𝑛+ =
1+𝛾
𝛾 𝑛 + 𝑛0
𝑛+ = … … … . . 2 𝑃𝑢𝑡𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑕𝑖𝑠 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 1
1−𝛾

𝛾 𝑛 + 𝑛0
𝑛 = 𝑛0 + 𝑒 𝛼𝑥
1−𝛾
𝑛0 + 𝛾𝑛 𝛼𝑥
𝑛= 𝑒
1−𝛾
Rearranging the equation
𝑛0 𝑒 𝛼𝑥
𝑛=
1 − 𝛾(𝑒 𝛼𝑥 − 1)
𝐼0 𝑒 𝛼𝑥
𝐼= 𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑧𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡
1 − 𝛾(𝑒 𝛼𝑥 − 1)
𝑕𝑒𝑟𝑒 "𝛾" 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑇𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑑 ′ 𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑖𝑧𝑡𝑎𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡.

By ATAUR RAHMAN