Electric breakdown

in liquids and

solids

Department of Electric Power Engineering

 Insulating liquids

• mineral oil
• esters and synthetic hydrocarbons
• silicones and fluorinated oils
• chlorinated and phosphate fluids
• electronegative fluids (refrigerants)
• liquified elemental gases

Department of Electric Power Engineering

 Liquid properties of significance
• Transformers high breakdown strength, low losses, high
electrical resistance, resistance to partial
discharges, chemical and thermal stability,
cooling properties.
• Capacitors resistance to partial discharges, high
inception voltage, low losses, low viscosity,
gas absorbing properties.
• Cables electrical and gassing characteristics.
• Switchgear carbon formation and extinguishing.
• Bushings electrical and thermal properties.
• Electronics electrical and thermal properties, fire
resistance.

Department of Electric Power Engineering

 Breakdown in liquids

• electron initiated
• impurity initiated
• factors influencing
breakdown in technical
liquids
- humidity and impurity content
- polarity and duration of voltage
- shape and roughness of
electrodes
Influence of pressure on electric strength of
- temperature and pressure transformer oil in a weakly non-uniform field.
- liquid volume

Department of Electric Power Engineering

 Breakdown in liquids
• At ambient temperature and pressure the following
intrinsic breakdown values have been measured:
hexane 130 kV/mm
benzene 110 kV/mm
mineral oil 200 kV/mm (depends on viscosity)

• Liquified gases also show high intrinsic strength:

liquid oxygen 240 kV/mm
liquid nitrogen 170 kV/mm

•
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 Breakdown in liquids

Influence of water content on breakdown

strength of transformer oil containing
cellulose fibres (1.4 mmg/l) with reference Breakdown strength of transformer oil for
to a pure and dry oil. different types of voltages.

Department of Electric Power Engineering

 Breakdown in liquids

Influence of temperature on breakdown Influence of oil content (size effect) on

strength of dry (1) and humid (2) breakdown strength of transformer (50 Hz).
transformer oil.

Department of Electric Power Engineering

 Breakdown in solids
• Different mechanisms
- intrinsic (electronic)
- thermal
- partial discharges
- water treeing
- electochemical ageing
• Conduction processes
cannot be neglected
(>105 V/cm)

External and internal sources of conduction electrons: (a) Fowler-Nordheim

emission, (b) Shottky emission, (c) Poole-Frenkel effect.

Department of Electric Power Engineering

 Intrinsic breakdown in solids

Temperature dependence of dc Temperature dependence of dc

breakdown strength in quartz crystal (1) breakdown strength in polyethylene.
and quartz glass (2).

Department of Electric Power Engineering

 Thermal breakdown in solids

• Heat generation by

conduction σE 2

′′
dielectric losses ωε 0ε E
2

ac thermal breakdown voltage

PVC (high loss) - 50 to 100 kV
oil/paper (low losses) - about 750 kV
PE (extremely low losses) - up to 5 MV Heat balance in an insulating system

Department of Electric Power Engineering

 Partial discharge breakdown
• PDs cause slow deterioration
of solid insulating materials
• PDs are the most frequent
cause for breakdown in ac
insulating systems
• PDs cause discharge-
induced physical-chemical
reactions on void walls:
- temperature increase
- reactions and wall erosion
- space charge injection

Possible defects causing partial discharges

Department of Electric Power Engineering

 Ageing of electrical insulation
ageing processes in insulating materials may have either
physical or chemical nature
thermally activated chemical reaction

K = α exp(−Wk / kT )
Montsinger formulated in 1930 so called 10(8) °C rule
[L = Aexp(-BTc)]
Later Dakin assumed that changes in a physical
property P should be related to the concentration C of
an important chemical constituent of the insulation

Department of Electric Power Engineering

Thermal ageing
end-point principle

Department of Electric Power Engineering

Thermal ageing
temperature index TI

L = L0 exp(−W A / kT )
The temperature index TI is the
temperature in °C (derived from
the endurance characteristics) for
which the expected life time
should be equal to 20 000 hours.

Department of Electric Power Engineering

 Electric ageing

L( E ) = kE −n
L( E ) = A exp(− BE )
Department of Electric Power Engineering
 Multi-factor ageing

−N
L(T , E ) = L0 exp(− B∆(1 / T ))( E / E0 )
Department of Electric Power Engineering