High Voltage Engineering

Module 1
Conduction and Breakdown in
Gases

Department of Electrical Engineering

 Introduction
What is High Voltage Engineering?
It is the science of planning, operating and testing
high-voltage electrical devices and designing the
insulation coordination in order to ensure the
reliable operation of the power network.

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 Introduction contd..
•Modern high voltage test laboratories employ voltages upto 6
MV or more.

•The diverse condition under which a high-voltage apparatus is

used necessitate careful design of its insulation and the
electrostatic field profiles.

•The principal media of insulation used are gases, vacuum,

solid, liquid or combination of these.

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 Introduction contd..
Applications

•Laboratories in nuclear research.

•Particle accelerators.

•Transmission of large bulks of power over long

distance.

•X-ray equipments for medical and industrial

applications.

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 Elecrical breakdown or Dielectric
breakdown
Electrical breakdown or dielectric breakdown is a
process that occurs when an electrical insulating
material subjected to a high enough voltage
suddenly becomes an electrical conductor and
electric current flows through it.

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 Elecrical breakdown or Dielectric
breakdown
Electrical breakdown means failure of insulation.

Case 1

Insulation
Small No
medium
voltage Breakdown
tolerate

Fig 1

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 Elecrical breakdown or Dielectric
breakdown
Case 2

Insulating Electrodes
Beyond Breakdown
medium cant short
rating tolerate occurs
circuit

Fig 2

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 Gases as Insulating Media
•The simplest and the most commonly found dielectric.

•Most of the electrical apparatus use air as the insulating

medium.

•In few cases other gases such as nitrogen (N2), carbon

dioxide (CO2), freon (CCl2F2) and sulphur hexafluoride
(SF6).

•The maximum voltage applied to the insulation at the

moment of breakdown is called the breakdown voltage.

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 Gases as Insulating Media

Fig 3: SF6 gas insulated circuit breaker

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 Breakdown in gas
Electrons
Ionization High
or ions
takes place current
created

•Breakdown occurs within gas when dielectric strength of gas

failures.

•The electrical breakdown of a gas is brought about by various

process of ionization.

•These are good processes involving the collision of electrons,

ions and photons with gas molecules and electrode processes.

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Layout of gas breakdown process

COLLISION
UNIONIZED ELECTRICAL GAS GETS
OF
GAS DISCHARGE IONIZED
MOLECULES

GAS BREAKDOWN
OCCURS

Figure 4

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 Ionization by Collision
•The process of liberating an electron from a gas
molecule with the simultaneous production of a positive
ion is called ionization.

•In this process free electron collides with a neutral gas

molecule and give rise to a new electron and a positive
ion.

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Ionization by Collision contd..

Figure 5: Arrangement for a study of Townsend discharge

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 Ionization by Collision contd..
Consider a low-pressure gas column in which an electric
field E is applied across two plane parallel electrodes.

Any electron starting at the cathode will be accelerated

more and more between collisions with other gas
molecules during its travel toward the anode.

If the energy (ᵋ) gained during this travel between

collisions exceeds the ionization potential Vi then
ionization takes place.

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 Ionization by Collision contd..
This process can be represented as:

…….. (1)

Where, A is atom
A+ is positive ion and
e- is the electron

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 Ionization by Collision contd..
Few of the electrons produced at the cathode by some external
means.

Ultra-violet light falling on the cathode, ionize neutral gas particles

producing positive ions and additional electrons.

The additional electrons then, themselves make ‘ionizing collisions’,

thus the process repeats itself.

This represents increase in electron current.

Positive ions also reach the cathode.

On bombardment on the cathode gives rise to secondary electrons.

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 Townsend's Current Growth Equation
Let us assume that no electrons are emitted from the
cathode.
When one electron collides with a neutral particle, a
positive ion and an electron are formed.
 Let α be the average number of ionizing collisions
made by an electron per centimeter travel in the direction
of the field
Α depends on gas pressure p and E/p, and is called the
Townsend’s first ionization coefficient.
At any distance x from the cathode, let the no. of
electrons be nx.

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 Townsend's Current Growth Equation

When these nx electrons travel a further distance of dx

they give rise to (α nx dx) electrons.

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 CURRENT GROWTH IN THE PRESENCE OF
SECONDARY PROCESSES
•The primary process becomes complete when the initial set of
electrons reaches the anode.

•The secondary ionization process follow resulting in the final

breakdown of gases.

•These processes are:

I. Ionization due to positive ions.

II. Photo ionization

III. The metastable particles may diffuse back causing

electron emission.

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 CURRENT GROWTH IN THE PRESENCE OF
SECONDARY PROCESSES contd..
The electrons produced by these
processes are called secondary
electrons.

Secondary ionization coefficient is γ. +

The net number of secondary electrons

produced per incident positive ion,
photon, excited particles, or metastable
particle and the total vale of γ is the sum
of the individual coefficients due to the
three different processes, i.e. γ=γ1+γ2+γ3 . -
 γ is called Townsend’s secondary
ionization coefficient and is a function of
the gas pressure p and E/p

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 CURRENT GROWTH IN THE PRESENCE OF
SECONDARY PROCESSES contd..

Eqn 8 gives the total average current in a gap before the occurrence of
breakdown.

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 TOWNSEND'S CRITERION FOR
BREAKDOWN
As the distance between electrodes d is increased, the
denominator of eqn 8 tends to zero and at some critical
distance d=ds.

1-γ[exp(αd)-1]=0 ………(9)

For values of d<ds, I =I0, if external source of I0 is

removed, I becomes zero.

If d=ds , I→∞ and the current will be limited only by the

resistance of the power supply and the external circuit.

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 TOWNSEND'S CRITERION FOR
BREAKDOWN
This condition is called Townsend’s breakdown criterion
and can be written as,

γ[exp (αd)-1]=1

Normally, exp(αd) is very large, and hence the above

equation reduces to

γexp(αd)=1 ………(10)

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 TOWNSEND'S CRITERION FOR
BREAKDOWN
A given gap spacing and at a given pressure the value
of the voltage V which gives the values of α and γ
satisfying the breakdown criterion is called the spark
breakdown voltage Vs and

The corresponding distance ds is called the sparking

distance

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 BREAKDOWN IN ELECTROMAGNETIVE
GASES
 One process that gives high breakdown strength to a gas is the
electron attachment in which free electrons get attached to
neutral atoms or molecules to form negative ions.

 Since negative ions like positive ions are too massive to produce
ionization due to collisions, attachment presents an effective way
of removing electrons which otherwise would have let to current
growth and breakdown at low voltage.

 The gases in which attachment plays an active role are called

electronegative gases.

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 BREAKDOWN IN ELECTROMAGNETIVE
GASES
 The most common attachment processes
encountered in gases are:

(a) Direct attachment

AB+e →AB- + hv

(b) Dissociative attachment

AB+e →A+B- +e

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 BREAKDOWN IN ELECTROMAGNETIVE
GASES
 In this gases, ‘A’ is usually sulphur or carbon atom,
and ‘B’ is oxygen atom or one of the halogen atoms or
molecules.

 Townsend’s current growth equation is modified to

include ionization and attachment.

 An attachment coefficient (η) is defined similar to α, as

the no. of attaching collisions made by one electron
drifting one centimeter in the direction of the field.

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 BREAKDOWN IN ELECTROMAGNETIVE
GASES
 Under this condition, the current reaching the anode,
can be written as:

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 BREAKDOWN IN ELECTROMAGNETIVE
GASES
 γ is very small (≤10-4) and the above equation can be
written as α= η.

 The condition puts a limit of E/p below which no

breakdown is possible irrespective of the value of d
and the limit value is called critical E/p.

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 LIMITATION OF TOWNSEND'S
THEORY
 Townsend mechanism when applied to breakdown at
atmospheric pressure was found to have certain drawbacks:

I. Current growth occurs as a result of ionization process only, but

in practice breakdown voltage were found to depend on the gas
pressure and the geometry of the gap.

II. The mechanism predicts time lags of the order of 10-5 ,while in
actual practice breakdown was observed to occur at very short
times of the order of 10-8 s.

III. Also , while the Townsend mechanism predicts a very diffused

form of discharge, in actual practice, discharges were found to
be filamentary and irregular.

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 STREAMER THEORY
STREAMER THEORY of
breakdown mainly arises
due to the added effect
of the space- charge
field of an avalanche and
photo-electric ionization
in the gas volume.

But in practice,
breakdown voltages
were found to depend
on the gas pressure and
the geometry of the
gap.

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 STREAMER THEORY
 The growth of charge carriers in an avalanche is
uniform field described by eαd.

 This is valid only as long as the influence of the space

charge due to ions is very small compared to the
applied filed.

 On the effect of space charge on avalanche growth

when the charge concentration was between 106 and
108, the growth of avalanche became weak.

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 STREAMER THEORY
 When the charge concentration was higher than
108, the avalanche current was followed by a
steep rise in the current between the electrodes,
leading to the breakdown of the gap.

 Both slow growth at low charge concentration and

fast growth at high charge concentration have
been attributed to the modification to the originally
applied uniform field E by the space charge P.

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STREAMER THEORY

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 STREAMER THEORY
 The space charge at the head of the avalanche is
assumed to have a spherical volume containing
negative charge at top because of the higher electron
mobility.
 The field gets enhanced at the top of the avalanche.
 At the bottom of the avalanche the field between the
electrons and ions reduces the applied field (E).
 Further the field between cathode and positive ions
gets enhanced.

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 STREAMER THEORY
 Thus the field distortion occurs and it becomes
noticeable with charge carrier number n>106 .

 If the charge density in the avalanche

approaches n=108 the space charge filled field
and the applied field will have the same
magnitude and this leads to the initiation of a
streamer.

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 STREAMER THEORY

 When the avalanche in the gap reaches a

critical size, the combined applied field and
the space charge field causes

 Intense ionization and

 Excitation of the gas particles in front of the

avalanche.

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 STREAMER THEORY

 Instantaneous recombination between

positive ions and electrons releases photons
which produces secondary electrons by
photo-ionization.

 The secondary electrons under the influence

of the field in the gab develop into secondary
avalanche as shown in fig. 8

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STREAMER THEORY

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 STREAMER THEORY
On the basis of experimental observation for the
streamer spark criterion of the form

αxc = 17.7 + ln xc + ln (Er/E) (14)

Where xc is the length of the avalanche in which

secondary electrons are produced

Er is the space charged field directed radially at the head

of the avalanche and E is the applied field.

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 STREAMER THEORY
The conditions for the transition from the avalanche to streamer
assumes that the space charged field E, approaches the
externally applied field (E=Er) and hence the breakdown criterion
(eqn 14) becomes

αxc = 17.7 + ln xc (15)

 The transition from an avalanche to a streamer occurs when
the avalanche has just crossed a gap, d.

 The minimum breakdown voltage by streamer mechanism

occurs only when a critical length xc=d.

 The field Er produced by the space charge at the radius r, is

given by

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 STREAMER THEORY

Er =5.27*10-7 V/cm (16)

Taking in

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 STREAMER THEORY

Where α is Townsend’s first ionization coefficient,

 p is the gas pressure in torr, and

 x is the distance to which the
streamer has extended in the gap.

The minimum breakdown voltage is obtained

when Er=E and x=d in (eqn.17)

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 STREAMER THEORY
The equation simplifies into
(17)

Experimental values of α/p and E/p are used to

solve the equation using trial and error
method.

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 PASCHEN'S LAW
The breakdown criterion in gases is given as

γ[exp (αd)-1]=1 (18)

Where the coefficients α and γ are the function of E/p, i.e,

(α/p)= f1 (E/p)

α= p * f1 (E/p) and

γ= f2 (E/p) also
E=V/d
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 PASCHEN'S LAW
Substituting for E in the expressions for α and γ and
rewriting eqn. 12

(19)
This equation shows a relationship between V and pd, and
implies that the breakdown voltage varies as the product
pd varies.

Knowing the nature of f1 and f2 we can rewrite eqn.18 as

V=f(pd) (20)

This equation is known as Paschen’s Law

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 PASCHEN'S CURVE
It is seen that the relationship between V and pd is
not linear and has a minimum value for any gas.

B A

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 PASCHEN'S CURVE
 This means that a breakdown voltage of a uniform
field gap is a unique function of the product p, the
gas pressure and d, the electrode gap for a
particular gas and for a given electrode material.

 From Paschen’s law, the breakdown voltage of a

spark gap can be obtained in terms of α and γ by
rewriting eqn.18 and substituting for α and γ in
terms of ‘pd’ product.

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 PASCHEN'S CURVE
 This gives rise to ‘d’, the gap distance as

where

and

f1 and f2 being some functions and E= V/d ‘α’ may be

assumed to follow an exponential function and may
be written as

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PASCHEN'S CURVE

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PASCHEN'S CURVE

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PASCHEN'S CURVE

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PASCHEN'S CURVE

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PASCHEN'S CURVE

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Thank You