IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation Vol. 23 No.

6, December 1988 941

Streamer Generation and

Propagation in Transformer Oil
under ac Divergent Field Conditions

0. Lesaint and R. Tobazhon

Laboratoire d’Electrostatique et
de MatCriaux DiClectriques C.N.R.S.,and USTMG,
Grenoble, France

ABSTRACT
Prebreakdown phenomena in transformer oil are studied under
ac voltage in different field configurations, ranging from very
divergent point-plane geometry to quasi-uniform with rods or
spheres. A detailed study of phenomena in both polarities is
presented, and the minimum conditions required for streamer
propagation and generation are checked. Correlations with
breakdown voltage measurements under ac are established and
discussed according to these results. The main results obtained
about streamer mechanisms are the following. In negative po-
larity, it is observed that the generation of a microscopic gas
bubble (- 10 pm in diameter) immediately precedes the devel-
opment of streamers. In the case of bush-like streamers, it is
concluded from energetic considerations that the vaporization
of the liquid constitutes the main process of streamer growth.
In positive polarity, similar conclusions are made for slow bush-
like streamers, whereas in the case of fast filamentary, it is
observed that the conductivity of filaments determines their
propagation.

INTRODUCTION The extension of such mechanisms to the general

case of liquid breakdown is much more difficult, and the
actual knowledge of prebreakdown phenomena still fails
P to now, Prebreakdown Phenomena in liquids have to explain many well-established facts, such as the fol-
U been studied mainly with Pulsed voltage waves, which lowing. Neither scale effects (known as volume or elec-
are the more convenient experimental conditions for their trode surface effects [3]), nor the influence of particles or
observation. Since the first observation of the genera- moisture can be explained. There frequently exists no
tion and development of streamers in liquids [I], a large correlations, even qualitative, between breakdown mea-
number of data obtained in similar conditions has been surements of liquids performed in different experimental
published, in which the i n f l ~ n c eof several parame- configurations, as can be shown with a few examples.
ters, e.g. polarity, nature of the liquid, additives, was
studied. In point-plane geometry, a good reproducibil-
EFFECT O F ELECTRODE GEOMETRY
ity of events is generally observed, and fair correlations
between streamer phenomena and breakdown measure-
ments are established [2]. The classification of different liquids by their break-

@ 1988 IEEE
0018-9367/88/1200-941$1~00
042 Lesaint et al.: Streamer generation and propagation under ac divergent field conditions

down voltage V g can be completely different when mea- ELECT ROL U M IN ESCENCE
sured in divergent or uniform fields [4];
In highly stressed liquids this was frequently ob-
EFFECT OF APPLIED VOLTAGE SHAPE served [13];

GENERATION OF GAS BUBBLES

In negative point-plane geometry, the addition of
electron scavengers (halogens, aromatics) to saturated
hydrocarbons produces a spectacular decrease of V g Although frequently hypothesized [lo, 14,151, this
with pulsed voltages [5], (due to speeding-up of stream- has been evidenced in very few cases in hydrocarbons
ers [61], whereas an increase is generally measured with [11,16,17] and liquid N2 [18];
dc [7].
GENERATION OF STREAMERS

POLARITY OF STREAMERS IN UNIFORM

This was detected by the detection of shock waves
FIELDS [17] or prebreakdown transient currents [19], but their
visualization was previously never made.
Owing to a greater ability t o propagate, positive
streamers are generally considered to be more ‘danger-
ous’ than negative ones, and their study has received the EX PER IM ENTA L TE C HN IQUES
major attention, Significantly lower breakdown voltage
are as a rule measured with positive points [5]. However, HE experimental set up allowing the detection and
in uniform fields under dc or ac, factors known t o affect
only negative streamers (electron scavengers, low gauge
T visualization of prebreakdown phenomena under ac
voltage was previously described in [20]. The occurrence
pressures [6,8,9]), are found to have a great influence, of a prebreakdown event is detected via the associated
indicating that not positive but negative streamers are current or light emission signal, either of these being
responsible for breakdown in these cases (representative used to trigger the single-shot high speed visualization
of most industrial applications of liquids). device. The main features and characteristics are the
following.
These examples show that more experimental d a t a
about prebreakdown phenomena are needed for a bet- Different sets of electrodes were used, in order to
ter understanding of breakdown mechanisms in a wide study field configurations ranging from very divergent
range of experimental conditions, including long dura- point-plane to quasi-uniform sphere-plane ones. Point
tion of ac or dc voltage application, and quasi-uniform tip radii ro were varied between 3 and 400 pm, and inter-
fields. The aim of this paper is to present some results electrode distances d 5 25 m m were used. In most ex-
dealing with streamer phenomena under ac voltage in periments, the plane electrode was covered with a poly-
transformer oil. Most of the results have been obtained mer sheet (thickness 0.5 t o 3 mm) in order to prevent the
in divergent geometries, which were the most favorable actual breakdown from occurring, except for breakdown
conditions for the construction and test of the experi- voltage measurements made with bare electrodes.
mental set-up, and represent the first step of our study.
All results presented were obtained in a paraffinic
Very few studies of streamer phenomena in liquids transformer oil (BP-T2), previously dired, outgassed (<
under ac or dc voltage were previously undertaken, and 0.1 Pa) and filtered (1 p m porosity filter).
the results already obtained in this field are the following
Prebreakdown transient current measurements were
HIGH FIELD CONDUCTION MECHANISMS made with particular attention paid to preserve maxi-
mum bandwidth (> 100 MHz) and high sensitivity. Cur-
rents down to 0.1 mA were measured with a 50 R resis-
Field emission and field ionization, were identified tor matching a coaxial cable, and a greater sensitivity
by the use of very sharp points and highly purified liq- (- 3pA) was achieved when necessary by the use of a
uid, liquids, including liquefied rare gases [lo] and a few specially developed field effect transistor (FET) probe,
hydrocarbons [11,12]; with a low input capacitance (4 pF).
IEEE !lkansactions on Electrical Insulation Vol. 23 No. 6 , December 1988 943

Light emission signals were detected with a pho- measurable in our experiments, which are of course lim-
tomultiplier (RCA 1P21) via a collecting optical fiber, ited in time. The arrows in Figure 1 indicate thresh-
immersed in the liquid close to the point. old values, and mean that no prebreakdown phenomena
were detected during 1 h of voltage application.
Transient electrical signals were stored and display-
ed on high-speed memory oscilloscopes (Tektronix 7834). At low applied voltages, only negative streamers are
The oscilloscopes were triggered by these signals, and detected. Above a certain threshold, positive stream-
additional delay lines (350 ns) offered the possibility of ers start to appear, and their number per unit time in-
looking back a t the information present a t the oscillo- creases exponentially vs applied voltage with the same
scope inputs up to 400 ns before the instant of trigger- slope as negative ones. The ratio of positive vs nega-
ing. This feature was very useful for recording the very tive streamers generated tends then to be constant; at a
early stages of streamer appearance, or even preceding given voltage, 3 x more negative than positive streamers
this appearance. are generated.

The single-shot visualization device produces a pho- When d or P" are varied, all these features are still
tographic recording of events with a 50 ns exposure time, observed and we can conclude that under ac, the stream-
and can be triggered after a preselected delay t d with re- er inception for both polarities probably follows the same
spect to the initial instant of streamer appearance. In variation laws with the experimental parameters P O , d,
order to visualize the initial steps of streamer develop- V, but positive streamers require slightly higher volt-
ment, the minimum delay of the device has to be very ages (- 20%) t o appear with the same probability as
short. Thanks to high speed triggering electronics, this the negative streamer.
delay was lowered to about 30 ns. Black spots visible
on some of the photographs presented are not particles In a given electrode configuration with r() and d
in the liquid but defects of the video tube target. fixed, we can see on Figure 1 that, above the genera-
tion threshold, the number of discharges increases very
All voltage values in this paper refer to the maxi- steeply with the applied voltage V. If V is raised at a
mum or crest value of the ac voltage wave. too high level, many streamers are generated per unit
time, causing a rapid pollution of the liquid by evolved
gases and decomposition products. This explains why
V cannot be varied over a large range with a given set of
EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS electrodes, and that specific studies, e.g. the influence
of the applied voltage a t a given distance, are possible
only by changing the point radius r g . The higher ro,
G EN ERATION T H RES H 0 LDS the higher the generation threshold.
N divergent ac fields, streamers always appear a t the
I top of the sinewave, they are randomly distributed in
time, and the inception probability grows exponentially PREBREAKDOWN PHENOMENA WHEN
with the applied voltage. In Figure 1 is shown, in var- T H E POINT IS NEGATIVE
ious experimental conditions, the increase in streamer
number per unit time vs applied voltage. This measure- GENERATION PHASE
ment was performed with a digital counter connected to
the oscilloscope; it takes into account all prebreakdown
phenomena, whatever their polarity and behavior (they In the negative polarity case, the first visible event
may or may not propagate). is the generation of a microscopic bubble, observed in all
experiments performed with point electrodes (Figures 2
The number of discharges increases exponentially and 3). The associated current consists of a very fast
with voltage, as shown in Figure 1. The slopes are current burst of about 10 pA, correlated with a light
comparable in all cases, but at low applied voltages a pulse.
threshold is observed (except with r g = 100 pm), and
the probability of streamer inception drops drastically The rise and fall times of the measured current
when the applied voltage is reduced below this thresh- pulse x 5 ns, see Figure 2), are those of the measur-
old. Thus, there probably is a minimum voltage below ing device, and we can conclude that they are in fact
which no streamer can be generated, or at least is not shorter, probably in the lo-'" s range as testified by
944 Lesaint e t al.: Streamer generation and propagation under ac divergent field conditions

10 20 20 20 30 30 40

Figure 1.
Streamer appearance frequency vs applied voltage +++ : d=5 mm; o o 0 : d= 8 mm; x x x: d=13
mm

a few measurements performed with a 400 MHz band- obtained within the investigated range indicate that the
width oscilloscope plug-in (Tektronix 7A19). mean field E = V / d , with V the applied voltage, is the
more appropriate parameter to characterize our obser-
Since the visualization is always made with a some- vat ions.
times very short delay, the chronology of events remains
questionable. Is the observed bubble a consequence of With a low mean field E x 20 kV/cm, obtained
the current pulse, or conversely does the bubble precede with sharp points ( T =~ 3 pm), no propagation phase is

this current peak, which could then be interpreted as a

discharge in a gaseous phase? The response t o this im- -
observed. T h e bubble expands slightly during the next
400 ns (Figure 4), detaches from the point and is
swept into the liquid with a velocity of 10 m/s (no more
portant question was given experimentally by an optical
time-resolved study of the bubble generation and growth current is detectable during this phase).
[21]. A sharp laser beam is focused on the point, and the
occurrence and development of the bubble are studied With a high mean field E 5 100 kV/cm, obtained
by measuring the transmitted light intensity variations, with large tip radii ( T =
~ 100 pm), a reproducible prop-

due to scattering in the bubble. The synchronous mea- agation phase is observed (Figure 5 ) , a t a well-defined
surement of current peaks and optical signals shows that constant velocity of 1 km/s (Figure 6 ) . Streamers are
the bubble appearance always takes place after the de- filamentary, and associated currents constituted of fast
tection of a current pulse (results t o be published in a current peaks of rapidly growing intensity, starting a
later paper). few hundreds of ns after the initial bubble generation
(Figure 3). There is a definite correlation between the
PROPAGATION PHASE streamer length and the intensity of current pulses.

In all intermediate experimental situations, the neg-

The events following this initial phase are strongly ative streamer behavior shows a large dispersion, and
dependent on the electrode configuration. All results the following general features are observed.
I E E E Transactions on Electrical Insulation Vol. 23 No. 6, December 1988 945

100ns/div. -1OpAldiv.

100ns:'div. -arb .unit

Figure 3.
Bubble generation in negative polarity with a
rounded tip T O = 100 pm; V=35 kV and associ-
ated current trace.

of current pulses is here very low, and we can observe

that each one is correlated with a light pulse. The decay
time of light pulses (about 200 ns) is much longer than
that of current pulses. When the repetition rate is high
Figure 2. (such as in Figure 5), the light pulses overlap makes that
(a) Bubble generation in negative polarity with a quasi continuous light emission signal is observed.
a sharp tip 70 = 3 pm; V=16 kV; (b) associated
current pulse; (c) light emission signal. PREBREAKDOWN PHENOMENA WHEN
T H E POINT IS POSITIVE
N positive polarity, two different kind of streamers
Many streamers don't cross the whole gap. The I
- -
with definitely different characteristics have been ob-
propagation stops below 40 kV/cm, no streamer can served. Fast filamentary streamers are observed in all
cross the gap, above 80 kV/cm, all of them reach the the experimental configurations studied and slow, bush-
plane electrode. like positive streamers, resembling negative ones, have
been observed, but these are exceptional and occur in
As the mean field E is reduced, the recurrence fre- very divergent fields.
quency as well as the intensity of current peaks de-

-
creases, the shape of streamers becomes more and more
bulky, their velocity decreases down to 300 m/s.
FI L AM E NTAR Y ST R EA M ERS

With this type of streamers, a good reproducibility

A typical example of negative streamer observed in of events is observed, which can be described by a few
such conditions is shown in Figure 7. The repetition rate simple rules.
 846 Lesaint et al.: Streamer generation aind propagation under ac divergent field conditions

-I.I. L I . .

Figure 4. Figure 5 .
Bubble growth, detachment and motion in the Propagation of a negative filamentary streamer,
liquid T O = 3 pm; V=16 kV. T~ = 100 pm; V=35 kV and associated typical
current trace.

Positive streamer velocity is well defined and con-

5- s t rw n r r length ( m m )
stant throughout the gap (Figure 6) and whatever the
electrode configuration used, within the limits of our ex-
periments, positive streamer propagation is found to be 4-
strtamcrs
only dependent on the applied voltage V I which deter-
mines the length at which it will stop (Figure 8). In 3-
the investigated range, the average length grows quasi-
linearly with V I the slope being about 35 kV/cm. V =42kV
2-

Streamers are always composed of thin filaments

(Figures 9, lo), and two characteristic behaviors are ob-
served. Filaments can subdivide and form trees when time ( p s )
conditions are such that their stopping will occur soon 1 1 I 1 I
afterwards. This occurs close to the point when the ap- 0 1 2 3 4 5
plied voltage is low (Figure lo), and a t the extremity
of stopped streamers when the applied voltage is high Figure 6.
(Figure 9). When experimental conditions broadly ex- Propagation of positive and negative streamers.
ceed the minimum required for streamer propagation,
i.e. close to the point at high voltage, filaments grow
with a regular shape without branching (Figure 9). rent is steady as the streamer proceeds. The recorded
trace remains smooth for about 1 ps, after which sharp
In contrast to the case of negative polarity, the cur- superimposed discontinuities generally appear. An im-
IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation Vol. 23 No. 6, December 1988 94 7

200ns/ d i v . -arb. u n i t
*1
10

20 30 40
applied voltage ( k V )
I

SO
Figure 8.
Stopping distance of positive
streamers vs applied voltage.
I

60
I
70

filamentary

randomly (Figure 11). It is characterized by its cur-

rent trace which consists of discrete pulses similar to
those observed in negative polarity, and the shape of the
streamer is also very comparable. These slow stream-

does not exceed -

ers never propagate very far, their maximum extension
100 pm, after which they quickly
disappear in the liquid, the same way as in Figure 4.
Figure 7.
(a) Propagation of a slow negative streamer,
T O = 10 pm; V=20 kV; (b,c) typical current
and light emission signals recorded. Synchro-
nized measurements.
MODERATELY DlVERG ENT FIELDS
ITH moderately divergent fields, tip radii > 400
W pm, the detection of current or light pulses was
always correlated with the presence of particles on the
portant feature is that currents don’t always increase
as the streamer grows. With large distances and high high-field electrode; this was never observed with sharper
applied voltages, only a few (- 10) filaments are still electrodes. In spite of filtering, particles were always
propagating, and a constant current of about 1 mA is present in the liquid. Due to the low visual magnifica-
recorded (Figure 9). tion imposed by the large electrode dimensions, it was
not possible to ascertain that each current pulse was cor-
related with an optically observable phenomena, which
BUSH-LIKE STREAMERS
size could be a few pm, as in Figure 2. However, when
streamers appear (Figure 12), their characteristics were
With highly divergent fields, ro = 3 pm, and com- very similar to those previously described, and trigger-
paratively low applied voltages, a second regime appears ing particles touching the electrode were always seen.
948 Lesaint et al.: Streamer generation and propagation under ac divergent field conditions

Figure 9. Figure 10.

Stopped positive filamentary streamer, T O = 40 Stopped positive filamentary streamer, T O = 3
pm; V=45 kV and typical recorded current pm; V=17 kV and typical recorded current
trace. trace.

C 0R R ELAT IONS WITH

BREAKDOWN MEASUREMENTS high E > 80 kV/cm, all streamers can propagate, and
breakdown is controlled by the generation and essen-
GEN ERA L CO NSID €RATIO NS tially is due t o negative streamers which are the first
NDER ac, breakdown is due to the first streamer generated. In highly divergent geometries, when the
U independent of polarity, that can be generated and
propagate. From the preceding results, no simple scheme
mean field is low E < 40 kV/cm, breakdown is con-
trolled by the propagation of streamers and is due main-
of electrical breakdown in transformer oil under ac volt- ly to positive streamers which propagate more easily.
age emerges, since negative streamers are generated a t
lower voltages than positive streamers, but their prop- BREAKDOWN VOLTAGE M EASU REM ENTS
agation is more difficult. In the investigated range, no
propagation of negative streamer was observed below 40 IN DIVERGENT FIELDS
good agreement with this description was found
kV/cm, whereas the length/voltage relationship found
for positive streamers (Figure 8) leads to an apparent A 13.in breakdown voltage measurements shown in Fig-
-
propagation field of 35 kV/cm. ure The polarity of the point was noted for each
breakdown.
A large scatter is observed for the propagation of
negative streamers. The propagation probability in- At q ,= 400 pm, three distinct zones are observable
creases from 0 to 1 when the mean field E varies from on this curve.
40 t o 80 kV/cm.
(A) At short distances ( d 5 3 mm), the mean field
Nevertheless, two extreme cases can be distinguished. is high and all breakdowns occur when the point is
With moderately divergent geometries, the mean field is negative; (B) In the intermediate zone, the situation
IEEE fiansactions on Electrical Insula tion Vol. 23 N o . 6 , December 1988 949

Figure 11.
Bush-like positive streamer, T O = 3 pm; V=17
kV and typical recorded current trace.

moves from a generation-controlled to a propagation-

controlled regime. Breakdown can occur in both po-
larities, the probability of having a negative breakdown
regularly decreases as the distance is increased; (C) At
long distances ( d L 30 mm), the mean field is low (< 40 Figure 12.
kV/cm), no negative streamer can propagate, break- Negative streamer generated by a particle, neg-
down occurs only when the point is positive. ative and positive streamers with moderately di-
vergent fields. T O = 400 pm; d=2.5mm; V=40
At ro = 100 pm, similar characteristics are found, kV.
the transition from the B to C regime is observed when
E drops < 40 kV/cm, a t a lower distance since genera-
tion voltages, a t a given distance, decrease when point negative streamers t o propagate. Thus the slope of the
radii are reduced. voltage ramp determines the extent of zones A and B in
Figure 13.

INFLUENCE OF VOLTAGE RATE OF RISE

low voltages only negative streamers are gener- GENERAL CASE OF TRANSFORMER OIL
A T
ated, but their repetition rate is very low, < 1 per
minute. Therefore if the voltage ramp is fast enough,
BREAKDOWN UNDER AC

1 kV/s in our case the level at which positive stream- As concerns correlations with breakdown data, we
ers appear can be reached without generating negative note that
streamers. For this reason, positive streamers can be
observed on the left of the transition zone (B) on Fig- Extrapolation to other liquids have to be made with
ure 13, in a region where the field is high enough for great care, since characteristics of streamers (generation
950 Lesaint et al.: Streamer generation and propagation under ac divergent field conditions

breakdown data [22-241 indicate that values a t large dis-

brtrkdown voltrgr (kV) tance are in the 10 to 20 kV/cm range.

In negative polarity, impulse breakdown voltages vs

distance generally increase with a slope of the order of
60 kV/cm or higher for distances of a few cm [5], consis-
tent with the propagation field observed in our experi-
ments under ac. However, at large distances and high
applied voltages [24], we can observe a large decrease of
this slope which then becomes comparable to the one
+-to positive streamers
observed at positive polarity. This indicates a modifi-
I cation of negative streamer phenomena, not observed in

YI
0
I
1
point t o plane d i s t a n c e (cm)
1
2
I
3
I
a
our experiments, switching to a more easily propagated
mode, probably due to a change of conductivity.

In uniform fields, the dominant influence of parti-

cles on streamer generation is evidenced by the obser-
Figure 13. vations made with large point radii (Figure 12). This
ac Breakdown voltage of transformer oil in diver- effect is an illustration that long durations of voltage ap-
gent fields vs inter-electrode distance (average of plication and quasi-uniform fields are the more sensitive
10 measurements). experimental conditions regarding the influence of pollu-
tion from particles and water, which has been known for
a long time. The influence of negative streamers, coher-
and propagation thresholds) can change widely with the ent with the measured effect of a few factors (see above),
molecular structure; is an important feature that requires further studies in
uniform fields to be fully evidenced.
At large distances with divergent fields, the break-
down voltage variations V , vs distance are thought to
reflect the propagation of positive streamers. The avail- CHARACTER1ZATION OF
able data [22-241 as well as our measurements (Fig-
ure 13) shows that in such conditions, V B increases STREAMER PHENOMENA UNDER
linearly vs distance 5 50 cm, with a slope close to 10 ac
kV/cm, this slope being lower at very long distances 5 1
m. This value is somewhat higher than the 35 kV/cm NDER ac, the streamer phenomena observed in trans-
measured on Figure 8, for two reasons. U former oil are very comparable to those already de-
scribed under impulse voltage, and the main difference
Under ac, many streamers can be generated, and between these two types of experimental conditions ap-
the length to be considered is not the average one (Fig- pears to be the comparatively lower voltages applied
ure 8), but the maximum recorded within the scatter of under ac.
measurements. We can see on Figure 8 that this scat-
ter tends to grow as distance and applied voltage are In positive polarity, two distinct regimes have been
increased. Under impulse voltage, only one streamer observed, similar to those previously described in satu-
is generated at each shot, and the breakdown voltage rated hydrocarbons [25].
vs gap should reflect the statistical average value of
streamer length. An excellent agreement with this is In negative polarity, the situation is less clear. The
found in the measurements published by Devins et al. existence of two distinct regimes in transformer oil has
[23], who derived a minimum propagation field of 33 been previously postulated (bush-type or tree-type [26]).
kV/cm from impulse breakdown measurement. However, from our own results; it appears that a con-
tinuous tendency of bush-like streamers to become fil-
The length-voltage relationship derived within our amentary under high field is observed, rather than the
experimental limits (Figure 8) may not be applicable a t existence of two distinct modes. No transition in cur-
large distances. A tendency of lowering of the slope is rent shape is observed (it is always constituted of fast
in fact observed on the right of Figure 8, and impulse pulses), and branches can be also observed on bush-like
XEEE "kansactions on Electrical Insulation Vol. 23 No. 6, December 1988 951

streamers (also visible on light emission patterns pub-

lished in [ZS]).

From the experimental results presented above, the

following hypotheses can be made, regarding the mech-
anisms involved in streamer phenomena.

BUSH-LIKE STREAMERS
bush- like streamers of both polarities, their
W ITH
shape is regular and quasi-spheric as in Figure 11,
and it is possible to get an evaluation of their volume. In
1
p.= 3pm

'1I
d s 3,Srnm
Figure 14, we have plotted this apparent volume vs the ' O :16kV
injected charge, which was measured with an integrating
capacitor (33 pF) placed in series with the test cell. We
see that the ratio of injected charge q to the apparent 0 1
volume is the same in both polarities and 21 20 C/m3. integrated charge ( p C 1
This leads to an upper limit of energy density, estimated 0- I I 1
as qV = 4 x l o 5 J/m3, consistent with that required to 0 a3 a6 0.9
create a gaseous pocket by vaporization of the liquid,
which requires x lo6 J/m3 of vapor phase. This indi- Figure 14.
cates that the vaporization of the liquid is the dominant Apparent volume of quasi-spherical bush-like
process involved in the growth of bush-like streamers, streamers of both polarities vs injected charge.
since the other possible mechanisms that could give rise
to an observable pattern, either by Schlieren or shadow-
graphic methods, need much more energy. period of discharges represents the time needed to sweep
the charges accumulated at the liquid/gas interface, in
Approximately 1'C temperature rise of a liquid vol- order t o re-establish the field in the bubble and allow
ume corresponding to the observed value is expected a subsequent discharge to take place. This time will be
with the available energy; decomposition of the liquid determined by the mobility of charges in both liquid and
requires a few eV per molecule, and leads to energies gas phases, and we observe that the time between pulses
exceeding those measured by more than one order of increases regularly as the streamer grows (Figure 11).
magnitude.
Electrostatic forces acting of the gas phase, that
The inner pressure in the gas phase must be of the should be a strong destabilizing factor if the charge den-
order of the atmospheric pressure since low applied pres- sity in the bubble is large enough [28], seem not to be de-
sures are sufficient to inhibit the development of such terminant in this regime. When current pulses cease, the
slow streamers [8,9], as we have also verified. expansion is stopped, no deformation of the bubble is
observed until it detaches from the point and disappears
Light and current pulses, always observed with slow in the liquid with close to the electrohydrodynamic ve-
streamers, are then supposed to be due to partial dis- locity [20]. As a matter of fact, an electroconvective
charges occurring in the expanding gas phase, and con- transport of charges is always observed in point-plane
stituting the main process of energy injection. From geometry, the mobility, deduced from space-charge plots
the above energetic considerations, it follows that most of conduction currents, being always of the order of
of the energy dissipated in gaseous discharges must be ( ~ / p ) ' / ' ( E permittivity, p density) [lo-12,15,18]. This
converted into heat used to vaporize the liquid. This accounts for the three-dimensional growth of slow stream-
assumption seems not unrealistic since, in gaseous coro- ers observed a t low applied voltages (as in Figure l l ) ,
nas, studies of the energetic balance [27] show that more irrespective of the initial field distribution ahead of the
than half of the injected electrical energy is used to heat tip.
the medium through deactivation processes.
NEGATIVE STREAMERS
According to this description, the energy input will nature of the first current pulse giving rise to a
be limited by the frequency of internal discharges. The T HE
microscopic bubble (Figures 2 and 3), still remains
952 Lesaint et al.: Streamer generation and propagation under ac divergent field conditions

2(V - V,)
a puzzling problem. In recent studies in cyclohexane
[ll],very similar phenomena have been observed, and it
E -
’- T, ln[4(d - l , ) / ~ , ]
has been shown that an applied pressure of 5x106 Pa has
with V , the voltage drop in the streamer, r , the streamer
a negligible influence on this current pulse, indicating
tip radius, and I, the streamer length. When the streamer
that phenomena occurring in the liquid phase are in fact
length reaches a certain value, the field E, drops below
involved.
a minimum critical value Epcritand the propagation
stops. Since E, varies very slowly with ( d - Z,), the
When the mean field is increased, branches start to stopping of the streamer is essentially determined by
appear, streamers become filamentary, while currents V , , which can be deduced from Figure 8
remain constituted of discrete pulses. In this case, there
is no doubt that the processes leading to the streamer
growth are concentrated at its tip. The necessary tip (3)
charge needed to create a high field at the tip in order
to maintain the propagation processes still active may be
supplied by the successive partial discharges occurring
With streamer tip radii T , of about 2 to 3 pm ob-
in the gas phase, giving a ‘two-step’ propagation mode,
served on high magnification photographs (Figure lo),
as previously suggested [6,29].
the minimum propagation field Epcrit can be evaluated
from Figure 8 to be about 15 to 20 MV/cm, values at
Current measurements also support the hypothesis which a direct field ionization of the liquid is likely to
of fast gaseous discharges in an elongated cavity. The occur a field ionization regime following Halpern and
quasi-linear relationship between the streamer length Gomer’s model [lo] has been recently identified in a liq-
and the intensity of current pulses (Figure 5) suggests uid hydrocarbon, with a tip field of 20 MV/cm [ll].
that each current pulse reflects a phenomenon involving As pointed out in [6], the voltage drop in filaments may
the whole length of the streamer as a partial discharge, provide an efficient regulatory mechanism which can ex-
rather than being concentrated at its tip. The order plain the constancy of positive streamers velocity. Every
of magnitude of currents is much higher than could be increase of the ionization rate at the tip, correlated with
given by the simple motion of a conductive tip: ahead a higher current flowing in the filament, will produce an
of the tip, the continuity of the current i is insured by additional voltage drop in the filament, which will tend
capacitive coupling with the plane, this current is to decrease the tip field, and thus the ionization.
dC dV
i = V(-) + C ( - ) At large distances, only a few filaments still prop-
dt dt
agate without branching (Figure 9), while a constant
where C denotes the streamer tip-plane capacity, and current of about 1 mA is recorded. The shape of this
V the potential present on this capacitor. As previ- current is in good agreement with the hypothesis of con-
ously shown in [30], the simple motion of a fully con-
ductive tip gives a continuous current arising from the
term V(dC/dt) N lop6 A, much lower than the mea-
of magnitude, -
ducting filaments proceeding in the liquid, but its order
2 x lo-’ A per filament, is once again
higher than the calculated value, N A per filament,
sured one. Conversely, very fast variations of the tip using a spherical approximation [30].
potential occurring from gaseous discharges can lead to
much higher transient currents due to the contribution Whatever the origin of this discrepancy, we must
of the C(dV/dt) term, which are of a comparable order remark that with such values of the currents, the dis-
of magnitude of streamer currents in gases. sipated energy within the filaments per unit length is
of the order of 3 W/cm, taking into account the mea-
sured voltage drop V,. Due to the small diameter of
FILAMENTARY POSITIVE STREAMERS filaments, this value is very high and must produce a
particular feature encountered under ac with this vigorous evaporation of the adjacent liquid. A growing
A regime is the voltage dependence of streamer prop-
agation (Figure 8). This effect is probably attributable
diameter from the tip to the other extremity is in fact
observed, as well as strings of bubbles when the streamer
to the voltage drop in the filaments, as suggested ear- dies out [32]. The influence of the applied pressure [8],
lier by Devins et al. [6]: the field E, present at the which tends to shrink the filaments without affecting
streamer tip, in the absence of space charges [31], as a their propagation, also indicates that a gas phase is a
hyperboloidal approximation, is posteriori involved in this regime.
IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation Vol. 23 No. 6, December 1988 Q53

CONCLUSION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
study was supported by the Jeumont-Schneider
H A N K S to high-speed optical and electrical mea-
T HIS
Company. The authors are greatly indebted to Mrs.
T surement techniques, prebreakdown phenomena in
transformer oil under ac voltage have been studied in
J. Delhaye and P. Vuarchex, members of the engineering
staff of Jeumont-Schneider, for their technical and finan-
cial assistance, and Mrs. R. Riva and C. Marteau who
both polarities. A large range of experimental condi-
greatly contributed to the building of the experimental
tions has been investigated, applied voltages from 7 to
set-up.
140 kV, distances up to 25 mm, point radii from 3 to
400 pm, which has permitted us to check the conditions
necessary for the propagation of streamers.
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