Effects of chain length on prebreakdown phenomena in straight‐chain saturated hydrocarbon liquids

Abstract

Prebreakdown light emission, currents, and streamers in straight-chain saturated hydrocarbon liquids, n-pentane, n-hexane, n-heptane, n-octane, n-nonane, and n-decane, are investigated under nonuniform field conditions. The light inception voltage and the breakdown voltage increase with the chain length and the liquid's density. For a negative point, the breakdown voltage is much higher than the light inception voltage in all liquids but the difference decreases with the chain length. This voltage difference is not observed for a positive point except in n-pentane and n-hexane. The difference between the negative and positive breakdown voltages decreases with the chain length. Regarding the polarity effect, the negative breakdown voltage is much higher than the positive one in n-pentane, but there is no difference in n-decane. A negative density change streamer has a bushlike structure and propagates in stepped manner at an average speed between 70 and 160 m/s, while for a positive one, the structure is treelike having an average speed of a few kilometers per second. Only in n-pentane and in n-hexane, a slow positive bushlike streamer is observed whose average velocity is about 200 m/s, slightly faster than the negative bushlike one. © 1998 Scripta Technica. Electr Eng Jpn, 122(4): 8–16, 1998