Abstract
PARTIAL DISCHARGE AS A FUNCTION OF PRESSURE UNDER VARYING LEVELS OF APPLIED VOLTAGE AMPLITUDE, VOID CONDUCTIVITY AND MATERIAL CONDUCTIVITY
A.S. Muhammad*, F.M. Muhammad and A.I. Dauda
ABSTRACT
Partial discharges are inevitable in Electrical insulators. These discharges are closely tied to the ageing and degradation of Electrical insulators that will lead to an eventual breakdown which can quite possibly result in more significant damage to the entire Electrical grid. It is therefore imperative that a good understanding of how and why these discharges occur is established and what can be done to mitigate the effects of these discharges. A model was developed on MATLAB to simulate these discharges in a void present in the insulator. Parameters like applied voltage, inception voltage, extinction voltage, void conductivity, material conductivity and Gas Pressure were incorporated into the model under AC/DC conditions. These parameters affect how many discharges occur. Also, under AC conditions the phase of the discharges is affected as well. An increase in the applied voltage leads to more discharges, while an increase in parameters like Gas Pressure, material conductivity, inception voltage, extinction voltage results in decrease in the number of discharges. A decrease in void conductivity leads to a decrease in the number of discharges. The finished model was able to adequately recreate partial discharge data under both AC and DC conditions. Gas Pressure changes the distribution of the discharges and as this pressure builds up, there is a decrease in the number of discharges until this pressure builds up to a stage where conditions are no longer feasible for a discharge to occur.
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