Improvement of surface flashover in vacuum

Abstract

Surface flashover of insulation systems is a basic issue in the field of high voltage and electrical insulation. To improve the surface flashover performance is of great significance for the development of advanced power transmission equipment and insulation materials. This study reviews the research progress of surface flashover in vacuum regarding to effective methods to improve the surface flashover performance in vacuum, including insulation system optimisation and material modification. The former one is beneficial to reduce the electric field distortion, and the later one is able to adjust the surface trap parameters of the material through physical and chemical methods. In addition, the ‘U-shaped’ curve is proposed to reveal the relationship between surface flashover voltage and surface trap level, discovering the synthetic effects of surface traps on surface flashover. It is expected that the ‘U-shaped’ curve will become a guidance to improve surface flashover performance through adjusting trap parameters. Moreover, several suggestions are made to build unified surface flashover model which is suitable to the range from high vacuum to high pressure.