392

ON THE MECHANISM OF PARTIAL DISCHARGES IN GASEOUS CAVITIES IN

CONTACT WlTH SOLID OR LIQUID INSULATORS

P. Bezborodko, 0. Lesaint and R. Tobazton

INTRODUCIION
The purpose of our work is to bring a contribution to the study of partial
discharges (PD's) in gaseous cavities subjected to an A.C. voltage between
dielectric surfaces, or between a metal and a dielectric. The subject of PD's in
solid insulation has drawn considerable attention for a long time ([l] to [SI).
The interest generated by it has been recently renewed as demonstrated by
the papers of Devins [6] and Bartnikas [7]. Most of the work has been
devoted to the degradation of solid materials by PD's under A.C., whereas
discharge mechanisms were mainly studied with D.C. [6] . The aim of this
paper is to present and analyse briefly the characteristic features of
discharges under A.C. and to compare them to those obtained in [6]. This
work was undertaken with the view to get a better understanding of the
fundamental mechanisms involved in the "gassing" of liquids ( e.g., their
ability to generate or to absorb gases under the effect of PD's).

Test cell and materials

We have used several kinds of cells of planar geometry allowing us to vary
the nature and thickness of gaseous, solid or liquid insulators, and to
simultaneously carry out electrical and optical measurements. Figure 1 is a
schematic drawing of the test cell built to study P D s between a metal and an
insulator. Such an arrangement was designed to remove the solid insulating
walls from the area where PD's take place in order to avoid creepage. The
gaseous gap d was varied from 50pm to 3mm, the thickness of the insulator 1
from 50pm to 2mm . The cell was first dried under a vacuum at 6OOC. The
gas under test (H2, N2, Ar, CH4), at atmospheric pressure, could be
continuously renewed, or not. Other uniform field test cells (previously
described in [8]) were used to study PD's in a gas surrounded by a liquid: a
flat disc-shaped bubble was trapped within solid walls and its volume
variation (characteristic of its gassing properties) was optically recorded.

--

P. Bezborodko, 0. Lesaint and R. Tobazton are with the Laboratoire

d'Electrostatique et de Mattriaux Ditlectriques, CNRS, 166X, 38042 Grenoble
Cedex, France.

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visualization
metallized glass
insulating solid (polypropylene

spacer (polypropylene)
cell body (PTFE)
ground electrode (aluminum)

Figure 1 Test cell

Figure 2 shows the experimental arrangement allowing us to simultaneously

record:
- the charge quantity transferred by PD's under 50 Hz with the classical
parallelogram method [3,5] (formed via a 4 capacitance bridge)
- either the light intensity emitted by the cavity (with a photomultiplier), or
the luminous patterns (with a gated image intensifier) across the metallized
glass electrode.
image
H.V.
test cell
intensifier

1- '

CRO.

Figure 2 Experimental set-up

The exposure time of the intensifier was adjustable from I F S to 10ms. It
could be triggered at any chosen instant of the sine wave in order to
correlate the light patterns to the charge transferred. Direct measurements of

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the instantaneous discharge currents were also performed with a 400 MHz
memory oscilloscope on a matched load.
RESULTS AND D I S a S I O N
Under A.C. voltage, whatever the materials used, the two discharge
mechanisms already described by Raether [91 and Devins [61 under D.C. or
step voltages were observed: Townsend discharges (TD's) and streamer
discharges (SD's). According to [6], both the discharge amplitude and the
transition from TD's to SD's are determined by the overvoltage AV above the
Paschen threshold VP. Under A.C., the electric field in the gas is progressively
re-established between two successive discharges by capacitive coupling
with the metallic electrodes. Beyond the Paschen threshold, the field in the
gas keeps on increasing, until1 a triggering event (e.g. a seed electron)
appears. Such an event appears at random, which induces a statistical
distribution of AV, leading to a somewhat large scatter on observed events.
Among the numerous experimental parameters which may influence the
discharge processes according to this description, the following were studied
[12]:
U.V. illumination.
When the gas is illuminated with a U.V. source (a high pressure Hg arc lamp
focused with quartz lenses), a reduction of discharge inception voltages Vi is
measured (up to 300V in CHI, 200V in H2, 150V in N2 with a 0.6mm gap), as
well as a relative decrease of individual discharge amplitudes and an
increase of their frequency. The transitions from SD to TD -s are also greatly
favoured.
Time durat ion of exposure to PD's. d e o r u t ion of materials.
As the exposure time to PD's increases, an evolution of the discharge regime
is generally observed, which reflects a conditioning of both gases and solid
(or liquid) dielectrics. Large discharges (amplitude in the 10-50nC range) are
first detected (called "Artgime in [lo]), their inception voltage Vi being 5 to
40% superior to the Paschen threshold Vp. The duration of this regime is
strongly dependent on the gas nature (a few seconds in H2, tens of minutes
in N2, and several hours in CHq or Ar). A second discharge regime (called "B",
amplitude 1-30nC) is then observed, characterised by Vi = Vp. In some cases
(for example with N2), a third regime ("C") appears, with individual
discharges undiscernable with the parallelogram method (see fig.3). In most
cases, when the gas is continuously renewed, the succession of regimes is
slowed down, and sometimes inhibited (in N2, the B-regime becomes stable
for hours).

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on of A.B and C discharge tvpes. TD & SD rtpimes.

From transient currents measurements and light pattern recordings, the
different discharge types have been analysed, and the conclusions obtained
can be summarized as follows:
B discharges. They reflect very fast and localized events, comparable
,gaseous

cavity (+2cm)

8nC

-i 7

" A discharge type (d=0.2mm)

q=soopc

'B" discharge type (d=0.7mm)

'C" dicharge type (d=0.2mm)

Figure 3 Different discharge types observed in N2, and corresponding
parallelograms.

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to the streamer discharge rtgime SD described in [6,9,11]. Typical light

patterns and corresponding parallelograms are presented on figure 3.
In the first photograph presented, it is clear that the initial channel has
impinged on the dielectric surface and propagated over it to discharge the
cavity (its magnitude is found to be proportionnal to the swept area). In the
second one, such creepage is not observable, and the light is emitted from
discrete sites distributed throughout the cavity.
C dischargee They reflect a process uniformly distributed in the cavity, as is
observable on fig.3, attributed to the Townsend avalanche mechanism TD
already described in [6,9,11]. This hypothesis is supported by the calculation
of the criteria proposed by Raether [9] and Meek and Loeb [2] for the
transition TD-SD: in both cases, the field reinforcement due to space-charges
in avalanches don't exceed OSkVlcm, which is much lower than the typical
applied fields.

1. Whitehead, S., 1953, "Dielectric breakdown of solids", Oxford University

Press, Oxford, England.
2. Dakin ,T.W., and Berg, D.,1962, "Theory of gas breakdown", in Progress in
Dielectrics, Vo1.4, 151-198, J.B. Birks Ed., Heywood and Co. Ltd. London,
England.
3. Kreuger, F.H., 1964, "Discharge detection in high voltage equipment",
Heywood and Co. Ltd. London, England.
4. Mason, J.H., 1973, IEEE Trans. Elec. Insul., EI-13, &, 211-238.
5. Bartnikas, R., and Mc Mahon E.J., 1979, "Engineering Dielectrics", Vol. 1,
ASTM, Philadelphia, USA.
6. Devins, J.C.,1984, IEEE Trans. Elec. Insul., EI-19, 5, 475-495.
7. Bartnikas, R., 1987, IEEE Trans. Elec. Insul., EI-22, 5, 629-653.
8. Meyrueix, R., Atten, P.and Tobazton, R., 1983, IEEE Trans. Elec. Insul., EL
18, L 65-77.
9. Raether, H., 1964, "Electron avalanches and breakdown in gases",
Butterworths, London.
10. Weldingh, H., 1977,"Internal discharges in spherical cavities in epoxy
resins", Pub. 7702, Tech. Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby.
11. Luczinski, R., 1979, "Partial discharges in artificial gas-filled cavities in
solid high voltage insulation", Pub. 7902, Tech. Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby.
12. Bezborodko, P., 1988, "Etude des mtcanismes de dtcharges partielles
dans des cavitts gaseuses au contact d'isolants solides ou liquides. Relation
avec le phtnombne de gassing des liquides", Doctoral thesis, Institut National
Polytechnique de Grenoble, France.