High voltage Engineering

1) Impulse voltage 2)Methods of generation of impulse voltage.

IMPULSE VOLTAGE


An impulse voltage is a unidirectional voltage which without appreciable oscillations rises rapidly to a maximum peak value and falls more or less rapidly to zero. Wave Front: The wave font time of an impulse wave is the time taken by the wave to reach to its maximum value starting from zero. It requires 1us to reach the peak value. Wave tail: The nominal wave tail is measured between the nominal starting point O and the point on the wave tail where the voltage is 50% of the peak value. It requires 50us to reach the peak value.

Causes for the generation of impulse voltages

Impulses on the transmission and the distribution system are frequently caused by two kinds of transient voltages whose amplitude may greatly exceed the peak value of the normal operating ac voltages. Impulses are caused either by:

1} Lightning strokes. 2} switching phenomena.

Lightning strokes


Lightning strokes are caused by lightning phenomena originated by lightning strokes hitting the phase wire of overhead lines or the busbar of outdoor substation. The amplitudes are very high usually 1000kv and current up to 100 kA. Impulse voltages with front duration varying from less than one up to a few tens of microseconds are in general considered as lightning impulses.

Switching phenomena


These are caused due to opening and closing of the circuit breaker or due to the failure of the electronic equipment. It requires 250 us to reach to the peak value and 2500us to reach the zero value. Their amplitudes are always related to the operating voltage and the shape is influenced by the impedances of the system.

The rate of voltage rise is usually slower, but it is well that the wave shape can also be very dangerous to different insulation system . The figure illustrates the slope of a switching impulse where T2is the time to half value The time to peak Tp is the time interval between the actual origin and the instant when the voltage has reached its maximum value.

Different methods used for the generation of impulse voltages



Single stage impulse generator. Three stage impulse generator. High voltage pulse generator. High voltage pulse generator using spark gaps. High voltage pulse generator using energy storage components and transformers. High voltage pulse generator using a non linear capacitor. High voltage pulse generator using parallel and series mosfets.

 1

Single stage generator circuit



The capacitor is slowly charged from a dc source until a spark gap G breaks down. The resistance R1,R2 and capacitance c2 forms the wave shaping network R1 will primarily damp the circuit and control the front time T1. R2 will discharge the capacitor and control the wave tail . The capacitor C2 represent the full load i.e. the object under test.

One terminal of the capacitor is solidly grounded and the polarity of the output voltage can be changed by changing the dc supply charging voltage. The most significant parameter of a single stage impulse generator is the maximum stored energy which is given by C1 {Vo max}

The efficiency of this single stage impulse generator is given as Efficiency =Vp/Vo

Where, Vp is the peak value of the output voltage and Vo is the input voltage .

Multi stage impulse generator



The Marx generator is very effective in delivering ultra short impulses at very intense power level. The Marx generator is capable of delivering voltage pulses of several hundred kilovolts at a duration of several nanoseconds to tens of nanoseconds. The time require to reach the peak value is about 20 picoseconds. After the generator is started the total discharge capacitance C1 may be given as n 1/C1 1/C1 Where n = number of stages The conventional Marx circuit is shown in the figure.

The capacitor is charged in parallel through resistor ,the spark gap switch is connected in series to add the individual capacitor voltage at the output terminals. The impulse capacitors are charged through to the charging voltage Vo through the high charging resistor. When all the gaps breakdown the capacitor c are connected in series so that the voltage at the end is increased to a great value.

The distance between the spark gap is such that the first gap G1 is slightly less then than that of G2 and so on. The wave front control resistance may have three different locations 1}Entirely within the generator. 2}Entirely outside the generator. 3}Partly within the generator and partly outside the generator.

The first two arrangement are not used as they require much space and a single resistor has to withstand the entire voltage even though for a short duration of time. The compromise between the two is the third arrangement as shown in the figure and thus both the damping of the oscillation and space economy are taken care of.