362 K. Kato et al.

: Application of Functionally Graded Material for Solid Insulator in Gaseous Insulation System

Application of Functionally Graded Material

for Solid Insulator
in Gaseous Insulation System
Katsumi Kato, Muneaki Kurimoto, Hideki Shumiya
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Nagoya University
Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan

Hiroshi Adachi , Shuichi Sakuma

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, 8-1-1 Tsukaguchi-honmachi, Amagasaki, Hyogo 661-8661, Japan

Hitoshi Okubo
EcoTopia Science Institute, Nagoya University
Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan

ABSTRACT
Functionally graded materials (FGM) have spatial distribution of a material property in order
to achieve efficient stress control. An application of the FGM to a solid insulator (spacer) for a
gaseous insulation system, like gas insulated switchgear, is expected to improve electric field (E-
field) distribution around the spacer.
In this paper, we describe the applicability of the FGM spacer to gas insulated power equipment.
In the FGM spacer, we gave spatial distribution of dielectric permittivity to control the E-field
distribution inside and outside the spacer. This paper includes following key results for the
applications of the FGM. Firstly, E-field simulation results when applying the FGM by a finite
element method are presented, in which we show the effective reduction of the maximum field
strength by applying the FGM. Next, a fabrication technique of the FGM spacer sample with not
only step-by-step but also continuous changes of permittivity is presented by use of centrifugal
force. Finally, dielectric breakdown tests using FGM samples which are accurately controlled the
spatial distribution of permittivity are carried out under lightning impulse voltage applications.
The test result indicates the increase of breakdown voltage (BDV). From these results, we verified
the applicability and the fabrication technique of FGM spacer for improvement of the dielectric
strength in the gaseous insulation system.
Index Terms — Functionally graded material (FGM), Permittivity, Electric field (E-field),
Spacer, Epoxy resin, Filler, Centrifugal force, Gas insulated switchgear (GIS)

1 INTRODUCTION insulation both in gas gap and inside the spacer. In the
insulation of a gas-solid interface, we have to consider various
IN recent years, from the viewpoints of the environment-
factors, like contamination particles, voids, cracks, E-field
friendly and efficient power transmission, electric power
intensification at triple junction and charging on the spacer
equipment tends to be compact and be operated under higher
surface, as schematically illustrated in Figure 1, as well as the
voltage. In a gaseous insulation system, a solid insulator
electric field (E-field) distribution on the spacer surface with a
(spacer) plays an important role for mechanical support for
perfectly pure condition [1-2]. For these reasons, the spacer
holding insulation clearance between high voltage (HV) and
insulation in the practical gas insulated switchgears, are made
low voltage (LV) electrodes. In the insulation design of a gas-
improved by various techniques in Figure 1, for examples,
solid composite insulation system which typically included in
controlling the spacer shape, additional shielding electrodes
gas insulated switchgears (GIS) and a gas insulated
for relaxation of E-field, and the introduction of thin layer
transmission line (GIL), etc., the insulation technique on the
made of a low conductivity material on the spacer surface [3].
gas-solid interface heavily becomes important as well as the
In addition, a lower permittivity material is being applied to
Manuscript received on 14 February 2005, in final form 12 December 2005.
the spacer. However, these techniques lead to the complicated

1070-9878/06/$20.00 © 2006 IEEE

IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 13, No. 1; February 2006 363

Incomplete contact

HV inner electrode

Contact angle

SF6 gas Void Complicated spacer shape Additional electrode

Low permittivity
Metallic particles
and charging Epoxy spacer
Surface treatment

Outer electrode
: Causes for degrading the insulation

: Insulation techniques

Figure 1. Causes for degrading the insulation performance and insulation techniques around the spacer of gas insulated switchgears.

structure of the spacer which limits the flexibility of the spacer 2 SIMULATION OF FGM APPLICATION
design and increases the manufacturing cost. In order to
overcome the limitations, it is necessary to propose a new 2.1 CONCEPT OF FGM
concept on the spacers with keeping their simple structure and Figure 2 shows the concept of FGM. Around the interface of
configurations. two different materials, the content rate of material-A to
We have proposed a new concept for spacer insulation; an material-B is spatially changed. This may be possible to relax
application of a functionally graded material (FGM) which has the stress concentration at the interface.
been developed originally for the structural material under
thermally or mechanically severe stress in special environment Material A
[4]. In electrical applications for us, the FGM spacer has
Material B
spatial distribution of dielectric permittivity inside. By the
control of the distribution of dielectric permittivity, we make Solid Gas Solid Gas
the E-field distribution in and around the spacer more suitable.
We achieve the efficient E-field control with keeping the
simple configuration of the spacer.
This paper verifies the effect of the FGM on the
improvement of insulation performance by both numerical
simulation and experimental tests, though the other factors like
thermal, mechanical, long-term characteristics, etc. are ε ε
Permittivity
Permittivity

carefully considered in the practical applications. For a

practical application, the efficient technique for fabrication of
the FGM spacer is investigated by use of centrifugal force.
Although in this paper, we investigate the effect of FGM x x
application mainly for HV ac GIS, even under HV dc GIS, our
Uniform material FGM
idea would be applied by the way that the conductivity of the
material of the solid insulator would be spatially changed. Figure 2. Concept of FGM.
364 K. Kato et al.: Application of Functionally Graded Material for Solid Insulator in Gaseous Insulation System

In the gas-solid insulation system, E-field stress under an ac or
an impulse voltage application is generally intensified in a gas
region because the dielectric permittivity of the gas is lower
than the solid material. In order to relax the stress
intensification, the application of the FGM is expected to be
effective by giving the suitable permittivity distribution inside
the spacer. In the next section, we carry out numerical
simulation to examine the relation between the given
permittivity distribution and the relaxation effect of the E-field
stress.
the practical spacer material that consists of epoxy resins
mixed with an alumina filler. The maximum and minimum
values of εr roughly correspond to the dielectric permittivity of
the alumina filler alone and the epoxy resin alone,
respectively. In the calculation, we focused on the E-field
distribution in whole region to be investigated. In addition, we
considered the detailed E-field distribution along the paths #1-
#3 in Figure 3, which may be important for the insulation
performance of the actual gas insulated equipment. Figure 5
shows the generated mesh elements for the finite element

2.2 CALCULATION MODEL FOR FGM SPACER

As E-field calculation, we used a finite element method. We 9
investigated the applicability of the FGM to the cone-type
spacer in gas insulated switchgears as an example. Figure 3
C
shows a calculation model. Calculations were carried out in a
rotationally symmetric system. We arranged the cone-type

Relative permmittivity
spacer between the HV and grounded (GND) electrodes in a A
6
coaxial arrangement. The diameters of inner and outer
electrodes were set to 80 and 200mm, respectively. B
From practical design viewpoints, we should take care of D
the dielectric strength under a lightning impulse voltage
application for the insulation design of gas insulated 3
E
switchgears, because the impulse ratio of SF6 gas is relatively
small. Therefore, the E-field distribution is determined by the
εr arrangement in insulation space. For improvement of E-field
distribution, we gave the relative permittivity εr in this
0
calculation as shown in Figure 4. The εr were given as A-E in 40 70 100
Figure 4, depending only on the radial coordinate. The εr value Radial coordinate (mm)
for uniform permittivity distribution (εr =6.0) corresponds to
Figure 4. Distribution of relative permittivity in spacer.
HV inner
Rotational electrode GND outer
electrode
HV GND
axis (100kV)
electrode electrode

40 Insulating
gas 40

#1

#2
30

#3

Spacer 80
(εr)

100 z

O
Unit (mm)
r
Figure 3. Calculation model for the spacer of gas insulated
switchgears. Figure 5. Finite element meshes for calculation model.
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 13, No. 1; February 2006 365

method. For the cone-type spacer model, calculation region From this table, we found that the application of the FGM
was divided into 31,304 elements. Every mesh element had spacer reduced the intensified E-field strength near the triple
potential distribution depending on the 1st order of junction.
coordinates. Next, we investigated the detail of E-field distribution as
shown in Figure 7. We described the calculation results along
2.3 CALCULATION RESULTS AND DISCUSSION each path taken into consideration.
Figure 6 shows the comparison of contour maps for electric (a) Path #1 (along HV electrode surface)
potential and field strength with the uniform εr and FGM The triple junction on the HV electrode side (crossing point
spacers. By the introduction of the FGM spacer, the E-field of paths #1 and #2) is a singular point on the E-field strength.
distribution was changed. Especially, around the triple Around this singular point, the E-field became intense and
junction, the E-field strength was reduced. The E-field at the maximum. The FGM spacer allowed us to reduce the
closest element from the triple junction is shown in Table 1. 5
HV GND HV GND A
electrode electrode electrode electrode
100 4 E
C
2.73
90
3

E-field (kV/mm)
2.46
80
2.18 2
70
B
1.91 D
60
1
1.64
50
1.36
0
40 0 30 60 90 120 150
1.09
30 Axial coordinate (mm)
0.82

20 0.54
a. Path #1.
5
10 0.27 A

0
4
(Potential) 0 (E-field)
E
[kV] [kV/mm]
E-field (kV/mm)

3 C
a. Uniform εr spacer. B
D
2
HV GND HV GND
electrode electrode electrode electrode
100 1
2.73
90
0
2.46 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
80
2.18
70 Radial coordinate (mm)
1.91
60 b. Path #2.
1.64
50 3
1.36
40 E
1.09
E-field (kV/mm)

2 D
30
0.82

20 0.54
1
10 0.27
(Potential) (E-field) C A B
0 0
0
[kV] [kV/mm] 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
b. FGM spacer. (εr distribution D) Radial coordinate (mm)

Figure 6. Potential and E-field distribution of uniform εr and FGM c. Path #3.
spacers. Figure 7. E-field distribution along the calculation path #1-#3.
366 K. Kato et al.: Application of Functionally Graded Material for Solid Insulator in Gaseous Insulation System

intensified field strength around the triple junction. In addition, Table 2. Specifications of spacer samples.
we found that the electrode area with higher E-field strength φ21
Spacer configuration
on the HV electrode surface became smaller by the FGM
t=10 [mm]
spacers.
(b) Path #2 (along spacer surface)
φ41
The E-field distribution along the spacer surface also was
improved by the FGM spacer. In type D spacer, the E-field Uniform εr FGM spacer
Spacer type
strength at the nearest element from triple junction reduced to spacer (double layer)
63% compared with the uniform εr (εr =6.0). The E-field εr=8.4
distribution became more uniform, so the utilization factor of Relative permittivity t=1
εr=4.0 εr=4.0 t=9
E-field, defined as the ratio of the average field strength with (εr) in spacer
the maximum one was improved.
(c) Path #3 (inside the spacer) Maximum E-field 29.2 20.9
In the spacer, maximum E-field strength was not so reduced. (100kV application) (100%) (71.6%)
[kV/mm]
However, the E-field on the interface between the HV
electrode and the solid spacer was reduced, especially in the
type D spacer. Also on the GND side, the E-field is not so Axis
intensified than the other FGM spacers. This is important Under 100kV
Application
because the interface may become a weak point for the HV electrode
(kV/mm)
insulation.
From our calculation results, suitable distribution of εr in the Spacer SF6 gas
spacer allowed us to improve the E-field distribution around it. 20
Especially as the optimum εr distribution among our
calculations, we obtained the type D spacer from the 18
viewpoints of not only reduction of maximum field strength GND electrode20
but also the improvement of E-field distribution. In our 16
calculations, we derived that the way for efficient reduction of a. Uniform εr spacer
14
the maximum field strength is in principle, the application of
the larger amount of spatial change of εr to the region with Axis 12
stronger E-field. From the above mentioned investigation, we
10
confirmed the applicability of the FGM spacer with the HV electrode
suitable spatial distribution of permittivity from the viewpoint 8
of the control effect of E-field distribution in the equipment. SF6 gas
Spacer 6
Table 1. Reduction of intensified field strength around triple junction
by FGM. 4
GND electrode 2
Intensified field strength
Type (relative value) b. FGM spacer (double-layer) 0
A 1 Figure 8. Contour map of E-field around the spacer.
B 0.69
of permittivity distribution makes it easy not only to fabricate
C 0.79 the sample but also to control the εr distribution in the sample
D 0.63 spacer, resulting in the accurate investigation of breakdown
(BD) test results. In order to investigate the effect of FGM on
E 0.85 the enhancement of E-field utilization factor experimentally,
the BD test was carried out. As the next step, we later treated
the fabrication of the spacer with continuous change of εr and
3 FGM SPACER OF MULTI-LAYERED carried out the breakdown test for the sample.
SAMPLE Table 2 shows specifications of the spacer. We fabricated
two conical spacers which have following distribution of
3.1 DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF MULTI-LAYERED permittivity.
SAMPLE (a) Uniform εr spacer: single-layer εr =4.0
The applicability of FGM spacer was verified by experimental (b) FGM spacer: double-layer with εr =8.4 and 4.0
tests. In the first step, the FGM spacer was simplified in multi- Being placed between parallel plane electrodes, the spacer
layer structure. In this case, the εr spatially changed step by has E-field intensification around the triple junction. Figure 8
step (discontinuously changed distribution). The simplification shows the finite element calculation result on the E-field
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 13, No. 1; February 2006 367

distribution around the spacer. Figure 9 shows the E-field breakdown characteristics and comparison with that of the
distribution along the spacer surface. From the figures, the use lightning impulse breakdown is also important in the practical
of the double-layer FGM spacer reduced the intensified E-field insulation. The partial discharge (PD) under lightning impulse
around triple junction. From the calculation result, the layer application was also measured. The photo-multiplier tube
thickness was optimized to make the intensified E-field (PMT) was used to measure time transition of light emission
strength as small as possible. during PD and BD. After each BD, the sample surface was
The fabricated spacers were based on epoxy resins (εr =3.5). polished to remove the discharging traces, then the sample was
As a filler, we used a crystal silica powder (εr =4.5). In order washed by ethanol to make the surface clear and to remove the
to achieve high permittivity, we additionally used a TiO2 charging. Five tests of BD were carried out for each sample.
powder rutile crystal filler (εr =114).
3.2 EXPERIMENTAL SETUP 3.3 BREAKDOWN TEST RESULTS AND
Figure 10 shows the experimental setup. The test spacer DISCUSSION
was located in the test vessel filled with 0.1-0.4 MPa SF6 gas. Figure 11 shows images of a BD path of the uniform εr
According to step-up method, we applied the positive standard spacer at 0.1 and 0.2MPa. All BD paths were started on the
lightning impulse voltage (+1.2/50 μsec) till BD occurred, HV electrode surface close to triple junction, reached the
because the positive lightning impulse breakdown voltage spacer surface and extended along the spacer surface to the
(BDV) is more important than negative one for the surface BD GND electrode. We found that BD paths at 0.2MPa were
in practical SF6 gas insulated equipment, though the ac started on the HV electrode surface closer to triple junction
than that at 0.1MPa. Besides, any PDs were not detected in
35
these test conditions.
Uniform spacer Figure 12 shows the average value of BDV as a function of
30
FGM spacer (double-layer) SF6 gas pressure up to 0.4 MPa for positive lightning impulse
voltage applications. We found increase of BDV for both
Electric field [kV/mm]

25
uniform and FGM spacer with the gas pressure. The increase
20 HV electrode HV electrode

15

10
Uniform εr Uniform εr
spacer spacer
5
GND electrode GND electrode
0
a. 0.1MPa b. 0.2MPa
10 8 6 4 2 0 Figure 11. Discharge illumination image on the spacer surface.
Height [mm]

Figure 9. E-field distribution along the spacer surface. 200

Lightning
Positive lightning impulse BDV [kV]

impulse
voltage 150
FGM spacer
Parallel plane HV
electrodes bushing
Test vessel
Voltage 100
SF6 gas divider
Triple
junction
PMT Uniform εr spacer
50
Digital
camera
Spacer
50Ω sample
Digital
OSC 0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
Protector Attenuator
(750MHz, SF6 gas pressure [MPa]
-65dB
10GS/s)
Figure 12. Positive lightning impulse BDV as a function of SF6
Figure 10. Experimental setup. gas pressure.
368 K. Kato et al.: Application of Functionally Graded Material for Solid Insulator in Gaseous Insulation System

of BDV of FGM spacer (BDVFGM) with the gas pressure was (1) Before thermosetting resins, we centrifuged a composition
significant than that of uniform spacer (BDVuniform). From of resins and fillers at 20˚ɋ. Filler density became
Figure 12, the ratio of BDVFGM divided BDVuniform is 1.17 at heterogeneous in resins.
0.1 MPa, and increased to 1.48 at 0.4 MPa. As a result, we (2) By centrifuging the filler with different particle diameters,
confirmed that field relaxation around the triple junction by filler density became continuously changed distribution in
introduction of the FGM spacer improved the BDV under the resin space.
more pressurized SF6 gas up to 0.4 MPa.
12
Next, we estimated BD field strength (BDE) at the HV
electrode surface at which discharge started. From Figure 13, 10
we confirmed that the BDE agreed to E-field Ecr at which the
effective ionization coefficient of SF6 gas [5] equal to 0. The

Probability (%)
8
equation of the effective ionization coefficient is given here as
follows: 6
(α−η)/P=0.026(E/P−0.88) (1)
4
where α−η: effective ionization coefficient (cm-1), P: gas
pressure (Pa), E: E-field strength (V/cm).
2
As a result, we can deduce that field relaxation around the
triple junction by introduction of the FGM directly involves 0
the BDV improvement effect. 0.1 1 10 100 1000
Particle diameter [μm]
4 FGM WITH “CONTINUOUS” Figure 14. Particle diameter distribution of TiO2 rutile crystal.
DISTRIBUTION OF PERMITTIVITY
Start
4.1 FABRICATION OF FGM WITH “CONTINUOUS”
DISTRIBUTION OF PERMITTIVITY
Mixing epoxy resins, hardeners and fillers
In order to fabricate FGM with suitable distribution of
permittivity, we need to make continuously changed
Degassing composition
distribution of permittivity. As mentioned below, we achieved
it by applying centrifugal force. The fabricated samples were
based on epoxy resins (εr =3.5). As a filler, we used TiO2 Pouring composition into mold
grain rutile crystal (εr =114). Its diameter was distributed in
the range of 0.3-40 μm (average: 8.7μm) as shown in Figure Centrifuging composition
14.
Figure 15 shows the fabrication process including the Thermosetting
following 3 steps.
Stop
50
Figure 15. Fabrication process of the FGM samples.
BDE of FGM spacer
Calculated Ecr
Epoxy resin
40
Tube
30μm
TiO2
BDE [kV/mm]

30

a.
20 a. Top

b. Middle
b.
10

0 c.
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 c. Bottom
d. boundary
SF6 gas pressure [M Pa] d. Bottom
Figure 13. Positive lightning impulse BDE of FGM spacer as a Figure 16. Distribution of filler content of TiO2 in epoxy under
function of SF6 gas pressure. the centrifugal force.
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 13, No. 1; February 2006 369

TiO2 filler appeared in 10-20mm thickness. Because the

50
Centrifugal force permittivity distributions were discontinuous at the bottom
45 2
(m/sec ) boundary of segmentation, we discussed the permittivity
40 9,800 distribution only above the boundary.
49,000
35
98,000
By controlling parameters, we succeeded in making
Height [mm]

30 Boundary continuously changed distribution of permittivity with

25
maximum permittivity change of k = 0.3 (mm-1) where k is
the change of relative permittivity per 1 (mm). In Figures 17
20 98,000 and 19, we found permittivity distributions made with 8.7 and
15
49,000 2.8 (μm) diameter fillers were nearly uniform under less than
10 9,800 (m/sec2). From Figure 18, we found permittivity
5 distribution shifted to lower values with increase of duration.
0 From Figure 20, gradient of permittivity distribution was
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 found to be larger with increase of volume ratio of fillers.
Relative permittivity Finally, we could make the optimum distribution of
Figure 17. Permittivity distribution with sample height in Test 1. permittivity from 4.0 to 9.0 and k= 0.3 (mm-1) as shown in
Figure 19.
50
In order to fabricate the big-scale FGM spacer, we used a
Time duration bigger tube (bottle type). A diameter of the bottle was ĭ57
45 7min mm. We centrifuged the sample with 9,800 (m/sec2) in
40 15min condition of Test 1 in Table 3. In Figure 21, we show the
30min
35
Boundary
permittivity distribution inside the sample. From this figure,
Height [mm]

30 we found the relative permittivity ranged from 4.0-7.0 above

25 40 (mm) height and k = 0.6 in the region. As a result, we
20 30min 50 Average filler
15min
15 45 diameter
7min
2.8μm
10 40 8.7μm
5 35 22.8μm
0 Boundary
Height [mm]

30
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 25
Relative permittivity
20
Figure 18. Permittivity distribution with sample height in Test 2.
15

(3) By thermosetting of resins in 100˚ɋ, distribution of filler 10 22.8

density was fixed. Finally, we obtained continuously 5
changed distribution of permittivity 0
Test tubes of 16mm diameter were filled with the sample by 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
50mm height from the bottom and centrifuged in its vertical Relative permittivity
direction from the top to the bottom of the tube. Centrifugal Figure 19. Permittivity distribution with sample height in Test 3.
force was controlled from 9,800 – 98,000 (m/sec2).
We firstly made samples centrifuged by 98,000 (m/sec2) for 50
7 min. Figure 16 shows the observation results of the sample Epoxy : TiO2
45
section multiplied by an optical microscope. In this figure, 7:3
40 6:4
white regions show TiO2 grain rutile crystal and gray ones
35 Boundary
show epoxy resins. Around the bottom of the sample, a
Height [mm]

separation boundary of two layers was clearly found. The layer 30

below the boundary was filled with high density TiO2 with 25
relatively larger particle diameter. By slicing the sample with 20
1mm thickness, we could estimate the permittivity from a 7:3
15
capacitance measurement result.
10 6:4
In order to control the permittivity distribution, we
fabricated the FGM with changing parameters: centrifugal 5
force, their application duration, the diameter distribution of 0
filler particles, volume ratio of filler versus resins and so on. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
The fabrication conditions (Tests 1-4) are summarized in Relative permittivity
Table 3. Figures 17-20 show the permittivity distributions by
Figure 20. Permittivity distribution with sample height in Test 4.
the Tests 1-4. The bottom layer including higher content of
370 K. Kato et al.: Application of Functionally Graded Material for Solid Insulator in Gaseous Insulation System

confirmed that the continuously changed distribution can be
made easily also for bigger diameter of sample.
4.2 BREAKDOWN TESTS OF “CONTINUOUS”
DISTRIBUTION OF PERMITTIVITY FGM
For a breakdown test, we fabricated conical spacers as
shown in Figure 22. As the FGM spacer, we fabricated a
conical spacer sample with a different fabrication condition
from the HV electrode surface closed to the triple junction,
after that, reached the spacer surface, and finally extended
along the spacer surface to the ground electrode. Impulse PD
was not detected in this experiment. Thus, we calculated the
voltage determined by the streamer inception condition and
compared it with the experimental BDV. The streamer
inception criterion is given by the following equation.

with those in the section 4.1 in order to maximize the
effectiveness of the FGM in the BD tests. We set the
fabrication condition as follows; mean diameter of TiO2
powder = 8.7μm, volume ratio of TiO2 versus epoxy = 30%,
centrifugal force = 39,200 (m/s2), and their application
duration = 10 hours. The obtained distribution of the spacer is
shown in Figure 23. In this fabrication condition, the value of
εr continuously changed from 12.0 to 3.8.
As a similar way done in Section 3.1, we used the spacer
sample as being inserted in the parallel plane electrode
system. Figure 24 shows the E-field distribution along the
spacer surface, calculated by the FEM. Here we defined E-
field strength at triple junction (ETJ) as the E-field strength at
30μm distance from the triple junction. The ratio of ETJ of the
FGM sample divided that of the uniform one is 0.83.
The BD tests were done in the same experimental setup as
Figure 10. Figure 25 shows the measured results of BDV as a
function of gas pressure. In all conditions, discharge started
50
³ (α − η ) dx = K
(2)
Here (α−η)җ is the effective ionization coefficient of SF6 gas,
K is a constant. The value of K for SF6 gas is set to 18 [6]. The
ionization coefficient of SF6 gas as a function of E-field and
gas pressure is given in equation (1).
Figure 25 shows this calculated BDV as a function of SF6
gas pressure for the applied positive lightning impulse voltage.
From this figure, we confirmed that BDV agreed well with the
calculated value. The 50% BDV of the FGM (BDVFGM)
sample has significantly higher value than that of uniform one
(BDVuni). As the effectiveness of FGM, we obtained the ratio
of BDVFGM divided by BDVuni, 1.44 at 0.1MPa and 1.69 at
0.4MPa, respectively. This can be interpreted that BDV is
10
9
8
7
Spacer height [mm]

45
6
40
5
35 4
Height [mm]

30 3
25 2 : FGM
: Uniform
20 1

15 0
2 4 6 8 10 12
10 Relative permittivity

5 Figure 23. Permittivity distribution in spacer samples for BD test.

0
10
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Relative permittivity FGM
8 (ETJ
Spacer height [mm]

Figure 21. Permittivity distribution in bigger-scale sample. Uniform

=36.8kV/mm)
(ETJ=44.1kV/mm)
6
(Unit: mm) Φ20

10 2

0
Φ40 0 10 20 30 40
Electric field strength [kV/mm]
Uniform FGM
Figure 24. E-field distribution along the spacer surface for FGM
Figure 22. Uniform and FGM spacer samples for BD test. and uniform samples.
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation
strongly improved due to the several factors (1) field
relaxation effect around the triple junction, (2) the change of
the point on the HV electrode where surface discharge channel
starts and (3) improvement of the surface distribution of
electric field. Consequently, we could verify that high
performance of electrical insulation in SF6 gas can be obtained
by the permittivity graded FGM application for the solid
spacer.
5 CONCLUSION
We proposed the application of FGM as a spacer material
for gas insulated switchgears. The application effectiveness
was verified by numerical simulation and experimental results.
Furthermore, we actually fabricated the FGM spacer sample
by use of a centrifugal force technique. The results are
concluded as follows.
(1) From the numerical simulation using a finite element
method, we found that the application of the FGM spacer
could reduce the maximum E-field around the triple
junction even if we applied a very simple shape of spacer.
The FGM spacer raised the uniformity of the E-field
distribution and was suitable for the improvement of the
insulation performance of gas insulated equipment.
(2) From BD tests for the multi-layer FGM spacer sample, the
application effect of the FGM spacer was found to be
clear. The effectiveness was higher than that of the
uniform permittivity spacer for higher SF6 gas pressure up
to 0.4MPa. From the comparison result of BDV with the
theoretical critical field Ecr, BDV characteristics of the
spacer approached to that of the spacer which had uniform
electric field distribution.
(3) We made continuously changed distribution of
permittivity and controlled it by applying the centrifugal
force. By controlling parameters: centrifugal force, their
application duration, the diameter distribution of filler
200
Marker : Experimental result
Dotted curve : Calculated BDV
Positive impluse BDV [kVpeak]
150
FGM
100
Uniform
50
0 Master Course student at Nagoya University in
0.1 0.2 0.3
Gas pressure [MPa]
Figure 25. Measured and calculated BDV values as a function
of gas pressure.
Vol. 13, No. 1; February 2006 371
particles, volume ratio of filler versus resin, we made
various types of the permittivity distribution. We
optimized the fabrication condition for the permittivity
distribution. These fabrication techniques are expected to
be extended to future electric power equipment.
(4) We carried out the BD tests for the fabricated FGM
sample, and found the significant enhancement of BDV by
the application of FGM in every gas pressure. The
improvement ratio BDVFGM / BDVuni increased with
increasing gas pressure. From the comparison of BDV
with the calculated value, it could be interpreted that the
streamer inception voltage was raised due to the field
relaxation effect of the FGM. Finally, we could verify
that high performance of electrical insulation in SF6 gas
could be obtained by a permittivity graded FGM
application for the solid spacer.
REFERENCES
[1] Y. Yoshida, K. Yamaji, M. Sampei and K. Ibuki, “Charge accumulation
and dielectric characteristics of dc-GIS”, Gaseous Dielectr. VII, pp. 495-
502, 1994.
[2] A. H. Cookson and O. Farish, IEEE Trans. Power Appar. and Syst.,
Vol. 92, pp. 871-876, 1973
[3] F. Messerer and W. Boeck, “High Resistance Surface Coating of Solid
Insulating Components for HVDC Metal Enclosed Equipment”, Int.
Symp. High Volt. Eng., Vol. 4, pp. 63-66, 1999.
[4] M. Kurimoto, K. Kato, H. Adachi, S. Sakuma and H. Okubo,
“Fabrication and experimental verification of permittivity graded solid
spacer for GIS”, Conf. on Electr. Insul. Dielectr. Phenomena, pp. 789-
792, 2002.
[5] M. S. Bhalla and J. D. Craggs, “Measurement of ionization and
attachment coefficient in sulfur hexafluoride in uniform fields”, Proc.
Phys. Soc., Vol. 80, pp. 151-160, 1962.
[6] X. Waymel, "Low SF6 concentration SF6/N2 mixtures for GIL", Gaseous
Dielectr. VIII, pp. 345-351, 1998.
Katsumi Kato was born on 20 May 1969. He
received the Ph.D. degree in 1997 in electrical
engineering from Nagoya University. Since 1997, he
has been on the faculty of Nagoya University.
Currently, he is an Assistant Professor at Nagoya
University in the Department of Electrical Engineering
and Computer Science. He is a member of IEE of
Japan and IEJ.
Muneaki Kurimoto was born on 10 May 1978. He
received the M.S. degree in 2003 in electrical
engineering from Nagoya University.
Hideki Shumiya was born on 29 June 1980. He
received the B.S. degree in 2003 in electrical
engineering from Nagoya University. Currently, he is a
0.4 Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer
Science.
372 K. Kato et al.: Application of Functionally Graded Material for Solid Insulator in Gaseous Insulation System
Hitoshi Okubo was born on 29 October 1948. He
Hiroshi Adachi was born on 27 May 1949. He received the Ph.D. degree in 1984 in electrical
received the Ph.D. degree in 1982 in macromolecular engineering from Nagoya University. He joined Toshiba
science from Osaka University. He joined Mitsubishi Corporation, Japan in 1973 and was a Manager of HV
Electric Corporation, Japan in 1980. He is a member laboratory of Toshiba. From 1976 to 1978, he was at the
of IEE of Japan. RWTH Aachen, Germany and the TU Munich,
Germany. In 1989, he was an Associate Professor and
presently he is a Professor at Nagoya University in
EcoTopia Science Institute. He is a member of IEE of
Japan, VDE and CIGRE.
Shuichi Sakuma was born in Hokkaido prefecture,
Japan on 5 March 1949. He received the B.S. and M.S.
degrees from Keio University in 1971 and 1973,
respectively. In 1973, he joined Mitsubishi Electric
Corporation. Since then he was engaged in research and
development of arc quenching devices for SF6 gas blast
breaker, partial discharge detector for SF6 gas insulated
switchgear (GIS) and development of insulating
material for GIS.