BREAKDOWN IN LIQUIDS

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 Breakdown in Liquids
 Liquid dielectrics are mainly used as impregnants in HV cables, capacitors,
and for filling up of transformers, circuit breaker

 In addition to insulation, liquid dielectrics also act as :

 Heat transfer agents in transformers ( 10 times more efficient than air
or nitrogen)
 Arc-quenching media in circuit breakers.

 Examples of dielectric liquids :

1. Petroleum oils / mineral oils / transformer oils (mostly used and
have been used for decades)
2. Silicone oils and fluorinated hydrocarbon (for high temperature
application)

3. Ester oils ( biodegradable, green, utilities are towards this type of

oil)
AA-UTeM-08 3
 Breakdown in Liquids
 Knowledge on the electrical breakdown in dielectric liquids is less
advanced compared to gases or even solids.

 Results of many works are inconsistent and sometimes contradict.

 Conduction and breakdown in dielectric liquids can be explained

based on:
• Highly purified liquids / chemically pure • Contain impurities like suspended
• Practically, still contain impurities at a particles and bubbles / cavity
very small amount
• Examples: Hexane, Benzene, Oxygen, • Suspended solid particle mechanism,
Nitrogen, etc cavity breakdown
• Electronic breakdown

Pure liquids Commercial

liquids 4
 Conduction and Breakdown in Pure Liquids

Electronic breakdown
 The processes are based on Townsend mechanism in gases.

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 Conduction and Breakdown in Pure Liquids

• At low electric fields

• Dissociation of molecules (dielectric liquid molecules
Ionic stage and impurities that exist at a very small amount) –
nothing is perfect.
• Current increases linearly with the field strength

Saturation • At intermediate electric fields

stage • Current reaches saturation value

• At high electric fields

• Conduction increases more rapidly and tends to
Field aided unstable
• Electron emission at the cathode + Field aided
stage dissociation of molecules in liquid + electron
multiplication through collisions as electrons gain
energy and accelerated. 6
 Conduction and Breakdown in Pure Liquids
 Maximum breakdown strength of some highly purified liquids :
:
Liquid Breakdown Strength (MV/cm)

Hexane 1.1-1.3

Benzene 1.1

Transformer oil 1.0

Silicone oil 1.0-1.2

Liquid Oxygen 2.4

Nitrogen 1.6-1.9

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AA-UTeM-08 8
 Conduction and Breakdown in Commercial
Liquids

Suspended Solid Particle Mechanism

 In commercial dielectric liquids, solid impurities may be present either as
fibres or as dispersed solid particles.

 Permittivity of these particles (εp) will be different from the permittivity of

the liquid (εliq)

 If we consider a spherical particle of radius r to be suspended in dielectric

liquid and the applied field is E.

 Then, the particle will become polarized and it will experience a force given
by :

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 Conduction and Breakdown in Commercial
Liquids

 In the case of εliq < εp, such as mineral oil (εliq = 2.2) and cellulose
paper (εp = 4.2), the force is directed towards a place of maximum
stress.

 If the case is εliq > εp, such as mineral oil (εliq = 2.2) and gas bubbles
(εp = 1.00059), the force has an opposite direction.

 The force increases as the permittivity of the suspended particle

increases.

 For a conducting particle for which εp → ∞, the force becomes:

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 Conduction and Breakdown in Commercial
Liquids

 The force will urge the particle to move to the strongest region of the
field.

 In a uniform field gap or sphere gap of small spacing the strongest field
is in the uniform region.

 If DC voltage is continuously applied or AC voltage is applied at a very

long period and the number of particles present are large, these particles
become aligned due to these forces.

 Then, they will form a stable chain bridging the electrode gap.

 This may cause breakdown between electrodes.

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 Conduction and Breakdown in Commercial
Liquids

 Breakdown strength of liquids containing impurities is much less than

that of pure liquids.

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Conduction and Breakdown in Commercial
Liquids

Bridging in contaminated transformer oil

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 Conduction and Breakdown in Commercial
Liquids
Breakdown due to Cavities / Bubbles
 Insulating liquids may contain gaseous inclusions in the form of bubbles.

 The processes that responsible for the formation of bubbles include:

 existence of gas pockets at the surface of the electrodes
 changes in temperature and hydrostatic pressure of the liquid
 gaseous products due to dissociation of liquid molecules by electron
collisions
 vaporization of the liquid by corona-type discharges from sharp points
and irregularities on the electrode surface

 If a spherical gas bubble is considered inside a liquid of permittivity εliq,

the electric field in the gas bubble is given by:

Where E0 is the field in the liquid in the absence of the bubble. 14

 Conduction and Breakdown in Commercial
Liquids

 The bubble will be elongated in the direction of electric field due to

electrostatic forces.

 Discharge and breakdown will occur when the field Eb due to voltage drop
Vb along the length of the bubble is equal to the field to ionize the gas
(minimum value on the Paschen’s curve).

 Expression for the bubble breakdown field strength is given as:

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 Conduction and Breakdown in Commercial
Liquids

Where,

E0 is the field in the liquid

σ is the surface tension of the liquid,

εliq is the permittivity values of the liquid,

εbub is the permittivity values of the bubble,
r is the initial radius of spherical bubble
Vb is the voltage drop in the bubble (corresponding to the minimum
value on the Paschen’s curve

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 Conduction and Breakdown in Commercial
Liquids

 This equation indicates that the critical field strength required for
breakdown of liquid depends upon the initial size of the gas bubble which
is affected by hydrostatic pressure and temperature of the liquid

 However, the theory does not take into account the initial amount of
bubble produced.

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