EE3092

CORONA CHARACTERISTICS

INSTRUCTED BY : Mr. C.K.S. Hapuaracchi

NAME
INDEX NO GROUP DATE OF PERFORMANCE DATE OF SUBMISSION

: Jayasingha P.M.
: 090210B : G-05 : 23/03/2012 : /02/2012

DISCUSSION: 1. Phenomenon of corona formation based on my observations. In my opinion, formation of corona means forming hissing sound violet glow around a two conductor points that is subjected to very high potential difference. Phenomenon is, when the electric field intensity at the surface of the conductor is increased beyond the critical value, the formation of corona is accompanied by a hissing sound that is most intense in regions where the conductor has sharp points or corners. At those regions the electric field intensity is the greatest. Corona accompanied by sound is known as audible corona. In a darkened room, corona formation produces a luminous glow around a conductor with streamers emanating from corners and points. If the electric field intensity is raised to a sufficiently high value the cumulative effect of the collisions of ions with neutral molecules will produce an ion avalanche and electrical breakdown. If the field is uniform, as between plane parallel-plate electrodes, complete breakdown occurs suddenly with the formation of corona. 2. Impact of this corona forming phenomenon for high voltage overhead transmission lines. The presence of corona can reduce the reliability of a system by degrading insulation. While corona is a low energy process, over long periods of time, it can substantially degrade insulators, causing a system to fail due to dielectric breakdown. The effects of corona are cumulative and permanent, and failure can occur without warning. Thus corona effect has some disadvantages, when talking with the high voltage transmission lines it has some benefits. Effects of transients produced by the lightning and other causes are reduced, since charges induced on the line by lighting or other causes will be partially dissipated as a corona loss. In this way it act as a safety valve and sometimes lines have been purposely designed to have an operating voltage near to the critical voltage in order to do away with the necessity for , and expense of lightning arrestor gear. On the formation of corona the sheath of air surrounding the conductor becomes conductive and there is a virtual increase in conductor diameter and due to virtual increase in conductor diameter, the maximum potential gradient or maximum electro static stress is reduced. Thus probability of flashover is reduced and the system performance is improved.

3. Importance of liquid resistor used in this experiment. In this practical, about 200kV voltage is applied to get the break down. Therefore in the situation of break down happening very high current goes through if not adequate resistance has not been provided. So definitely it should be provided high resistance value for the protection of equipment. Liquid resistors are often used in high voltage ac applications. The advantage of these types of resistors is that they can be assembled relatively inexpensively and can absorb large amounts of energy. Also it can give very high resistance values such as 2-10Ms using very small space.

4. Comment on the theoretical values and practical values obtained during the experiment giving reasons. In theoretical calculations, we assumed that the conductor surface is smooth. By assuming that we have taken irregularity factor equals to one. But the copper wire, which we have used, may have several impurities mainly due to formation of oxide and other factors. Room temperature and pressure may vary during the practical, but we have not considers the variation of those parameter. The cross sectional area of the wire assumed to be uniform, which in deed will have many patches, scraps... etc. Voltmeter reading just after breakdown may not be the exact value due to sudden variations.

5. Difference between the breakdown of non-uniform fields and uniform fields.

Uniform electric field When the voltage is increased in the air gap, gradually the voltage across the gap produces a breakdown of the gap which will occur in the form of a spark without any preliminary discharges in uniform electric field. In this practical, in order to produce the uniform air gap, it is used a cylindrical iron cage to obtain a uniform electric field.

Non -uniform electric field

When the applied voltage to a non-uniform field increases, firstly there will be a localized discharge in the gas to appear at points with the highest electric field intensity, namely at sharp points or where the electrodes are curved or on transmission line conductors. This form of discharge is called a corona discharge and can be observed as a bluish luminance. This phenomenon is always accompanied by a hissing noise, and the air surrounding the corona region becomes converted to ozone.

References: http://www.vias.org/matsch_capmag/matsch_caps_magnetics_chap2_25.html http://www.nessengr.com/techdata/liqresistor/liquidresistor.html

NON-UNIFORM FIELD BREAKDOWN OF GASES b y J.-F. Drapeau, G. Olivier, Y. Gervais