Partial discharge behavior of protrusion on high voltage conductor in GIS/GIL under high voltage direct current: Comparison of SF6 and SF6 alternative gases

Abstract

Recent studies have demonstrated that fluoronitrile (FN) Novec™ 4710 and fluoroketone (FK) Novec™ 5110 show higher dielectric strength than SF 6 . These gases can be mixed with a buffer gas such as CO 2 and technical air to have suitable dielectric properties for high voltage insulation applications. With the rapid growth of HVDC networks, these gases may replace SF 6 in future HVDC apparatus such as GIS/GIL. This paper focuses on the study of the partial discharge (PD) characteristics of SF 6 and SF6 alternative gases with a protrusion defect on the high voltage conductor with DC voltage. The results show that, for calculated equivalent SF 6 dielectric strength under homogeneous electric field, a difference in terms of partial discharge inception voltage was noted for gas mixtures compared to SF 6 . This difference may be due to the influence of gas pressure under highly inhomogeneous electric field. FN-CO 2 and FK-Air mixtures showed the highest PD amplitude under positive polarity while it was higher under negative polarity for SF 6 . Moreover, PD repetition frequency is higher for SF 6 investigated alternative gases. The results can help for the design of SF 6 free HVDC GIS partial discharge monitoring system.