An outdoor-impulse-generator

for 5.6 Mill. Volt

F. Brhdlin, K. Feser, H. Sutter

Contribution for the

International Symposium on High-voltage Engineering
ISH /Zurich / 1975 / 1

A 5.6 XV outdoor generator with its 5 MV

outdoor voltage divider,after erection at site.

An outdoor-impulse-generator
for 5.6 Mill. Volt

F. EMndlin, K. Feser, H. Sutter

Abstract
An outdoor-impulse-generator for 5,6 MV charging voltage is described. The generator,
built inside a plastic tower of glasfiber, is very compact and flexible. With the impulse
test plant it is possible to get front times from 1 )ls up to 1000 ps and times to half
p value of 50 @s up to 10.000 ps. All resistors are stored near the stages. Even at very
long wave shapes a extinction of the main-gap could not be observed. The trigger behaviour at different wave shapes is discussed. The triggerrange is about 20 $ for all wave
shapes. The mechanical construction of the plastic tower and of the generator has to control the high earth quake performances. The main features of the construction are discussed.

Zusammenfassung
Es wird eine neuentwickelte Stof3anlage fiir eine Summenladespannung von 5,6 Mill. Volt beschrieben. Der in einem Kunststoffzylinder aus GFK-Material untergebrachte Innenraumgenerator zeichnet sich durch seine Kompaktheit und Flexibilitat aus. Mit der StoBanlage kennen Stirnzeiten von 1 &s bis 1000 ys und Rtickenzeiten von 50 ps bis 10.000 ps realisiert
werden, wobei alle benotigten Widerstande in den Stufen gelagert sind. Selbst bei den
1;ingsten Impulsspannungen von 1000 ks konnte kein Verloschen der Funkenstrecken beobachtet werden. Die Ziindeigenschaften des Generators bei den verschiedenen Impulsformen werden diskutiert, wobei selbst bei lOOO/lO.OOO us - StoBspannungen ein Triggerbereich von
+ etwa 20 $ erreicht wurde. Die mechanische Konstruktion sowohl des Wetterschutzturmes wie
des Generators musste besonders die hohen Erdbebenbelastungen beriicksichtigen. Die wichtigsten Konstruktionsmerkmale werden beschrieben.

Resume
Une nouvelle installation de choc, avec une tension de charge de 5,6 MV, est decrjcte. Le
generateur, construit pour service interieur, se distingue par sa construction flexible
et compacte. 11 est place dans un cylindre de protection en matikre plastique. Cette installation de choc permet d'obtenir des durees de front de 1 ps a 1000 ps et des durees
jusqu'a mi-valeur de 50 bs & 10.000 &s. Toutes les resistances necessaires & la realisation de ces impulsions sont stockees dans les etages. M&me pour les ondes de choc les
plus longues, on ne put deceler aucune extinction des eclateurs de couplage. Les caracteristiques de declenchement du generateur en fonction des differentes formes de choc seront discutees. Pour des chocs de la forme lOOO/lO.OOO &s, on obtient encore une plage de
declenchement de 20 $. La construction mecanique de la tour de protection, ainsi que celle du generateur a et6 prevue pour resister a des secousses sismiques. Les caracteristiques princiuales de la construction seront decrites.
3

For producing high and ultra-high unipolar impulse voltages such as 3 NV

switching impulse voltages or 5 iW
lightning impulse voltages, adequate
laboratory dimensions are required for
preventing flashovers to earthed parts
which entails very costly solutions
within the overall investment (laboratory and test facility), particularly
when considering the size of the test
specimens for this voltage range. Since
the apparatus for power transmission to
be tested are often operated outdoors,
it is obvious that tests and investigations should be conducted outdoors as
well. The development of voltage generating facilities which can withstand all
atmospheric conditions lead to technically and economically interesting
solutions, particularly in the megavolt
range.
Basically, two design variants are
possible. In one solution, all individual impulse generator components such
as resistors, capacitors, spark gaps,
frame, etc. must be designed for out-

Fig. 1 - Stationary outdoor impulse generator.

4

door operation. The other solution is

to house an indoor generator in an allweather tower. The fundamental advantage of this solution is that all active
components are identical to indoor generators and that the problem of resistance to outdoor conditions can be
solved by a suitable tower design.
Outdoor generators with weatherproof
towers are built as stationary or mobile
units. Fig. 1 illustrates a stationary
unit solution as it was also applied
to the 5.6 MV impulse generator which
will be described in more detail below.
The charging unit for the generator and
the air conditioning plant are located
in the compartment beneath the impulse
generator.
As a variant, Fig. 2 shows a mobile
impulse generator with an air cushing
carriage. The charging unit and the air
conditioning plant are mounted under
the generator stages on the same mobile
base, thus creating a very compact unit.

-7

Fig.

2 - A mobile outdoor imDulse

generator with an a& cushion
carriage.

Several design features of the 5.6 MV

outdoor impulse generator
1. All-weather tower
The fiberglass reinforced plastic allweather tower with a 3.5 m diameter and
wall thickness of approx. 10 to 15 mm
consists of two 9 m long, centrifugally
cast cylinders which are assembled and
glued together with a resin compound on
the erection site. The all-weather tower
has a light dome with a build-in wire
screen and a glass port to facilitate
switching operations in the generator.
The air conditioning plant maintains
suitable ambient conditions inside the
tower. In this connection, it is of
-particular importance that the interior
temperature does not drop below -5%
with ambient temperatures down to -25'C,
since the built-in castor oil capacitors
cannotobe operated at temperatures below -5 C. The air conditioning plant is
also designed to prevent condensation
of moisture in the event of sudden
temperature changes. An essential design
feature of this generator is that the
tower is not used as a support frame for
the generator. The dimensions of the
3 segment head electrode (ring diameter:
800 mm) have been selected to accomodate
a 2.8 MV switching impulse voltage.
Fig. 3 shows one half of the impulse
generator all-weather tower with head
electrode during factory testing. With
a diameter of 3.5 m and a length of 9 m,
the cylinder has maximum transportable
dimensions which were determinative for
the design of the indoor generator.

Fig. 3 - All-weather tower with head

electrode of the outdoor
impulse generator.
2. Indoor generator
Fig. 4 shows the highly compact indoor
generator with superimposed stages. The
major advantages are an easily surveyable layout and the possibility of
parallel operation. The support frame
for the capacitors is an equilateral
trigangle which yields a high moment of
innertia. The generator frame is rigidly
mounted on the mobile base and flexibly
connected with the all-weather tower
above the generator. The generator frame
must completely withstand the dynamic
forces of earthquake vibrations and
of motions caused by operating personnel.
Fiberglass reinforced supports with tie
rods centrally mounted in the supports
are secured to the mobile base to absorb
these horizontal forces
5

The capacitors are short-circuited with

a safety earthing installation to insure
hazardless inspection of the generator.
The capacitors charged in a parallel
circuit are switched in series via 25 cm
sphere gaps which are mounted on top of
each other in a common cylinder and can
be adjusted over 28 stages with less
than + 1 mm play. generator is equipped
with parallel spark gaps and firing capacitors in order to obtain scatter-free
triggering for lightning and switching
impulse voltages within a trigger range
of 20 %

Fig. 5 - Detail view of indoor qenerato~

Fig.

4 - 25

Stages of the 5.6 MV indoor

generator and 5 MV outdoor
voltage divider during factory
testing

With an earthquake stress of 0.2 g,

tension of approx. 34,000 kp can occur
in the tie rods. When compared with
earthquake stresses, an essential dimensioning criterion is the inherent
frequency of the impulse generator which
is substantially lower than measured
earthquake frequencies. For example,
frequencies of 2 to 15 HZ were measured
during the El Centre, California, earthquake in 1940, whereas the frequency of
the generator frame is approx. 0.25 HZ.
The indoor generator is equipped with
service platforms mounted at intervals
of three stages. Resistors mounted in
the stages can be replaced from these
platforms. Fig. 5 shows the resistor
arragement and a service platform with
the access ladder.
6

1 - Series resistor, 2 - Parallel resister - lightning impulse,

3 - Parallel resistor - switching
impulse, 4 - Firing capacitor,
5 - Impulse capacitor,
6 - Switching spark gap cylinder,
7 - Grounding equipment,
8 - Access ladder,
9 - Resistor storage places.

The parallel spark gap is a plug-in rod/

rod spark qap whereby the breakdown delay
of a spark gap with an inhomogeneous
field is utilized for scatter-free triggering.
High flexibility was the objective of
the resistor layout. Flexibility is
obtained by standardizing charging,
series, and parallel resistors with
regard to structural and energy requirements so that they are interchangeable
at any time.

Moreover, several resistors can be

connected in parallel circuits. Thus,
with a total of 11 resistors per stage,
front times between 1.2 us and 1000 us
and tail times between 40~s and 106Ops
can be attained with mini al steps. T o
men require less than 15 minutes for
switching the plug-in series and parallel resistors eliminating the need for
automatic resistor selection. Although
the generator permits fail times of
10000 us and front times of 1000 us,
charg f ng switches were not needeB . The
use of charging resistors is simpler and
less expensive. The charging resistors
are dimensioned in such a manner that
the charging and parallel resistances
are equal for a tail time of 10000 us.
For this impulse shape, efficiency /
(Fig. 6) obtained with a load of 2.5 nF
and a surge sequence of 1 surge/min. is
about 70 %.
1l%l
100

ll!!!l~

I1111111

a.

Fig. 7 - Scatter of the Triggering of

the 5.6 MV impulse generator
(10 surges on one oscillogram)
a. Positive lightning impulse
voltage, 0.25 us/calibration
/
mark.
b. Negative lightning impulse
voltage, 0.25,us/calibration
mark.

LO

20

different circuits. Scatter-free triggering for lightning impulse voltages as

well as for switching impulse voltages
i s readyly discernible.

I III

I Illlll

Fig. 6 - Efficiency tof the outdoor

impulse generator as a function
of load Cb at different impulse
shapes.

Characteristics of the 5.6 MV, 450 kJ

-- outdoor impulse generator
The trigger range of the impulse generator is about 20 % for the entire
voltage range from 20 kV to 200 kV for
all possible circuit configurations. Two
extreme cases will illustrate the trigger
range. For lightning impulse voltages of
l-2/50, lower trigger limits of 63 kV
with positive polarity and 62 kV with
negative polarity were measured at a
static voltage of 80 kV. For switching
impulse voltages, lower trigger limits
of 63 kV and 62 kV with positive and
negative polarities, respectively, were
also obtained with approximately the
same switching spark gap adjustment. For
this generator, this means that the
triggering characteristics are independent of the generator circuit and generator components. Apart from the trigger
range, trigger scattering is also an
essential criterion for the assessment
of an impulse generator. Fig. 7 shows 10
superimposed voltage surges obtained with

c. Positive switching impulse

voltage, 50 us/calibration
/
mark.
d. Negative switching impulse
voltage, 50 us/calibration
/
mark.
At the 1140/9620 us switching impulse
voltage (Fig. 8)! spark gap extinguishing
could not be observed. At full charging
voltage (200 kV), the misfiring rate of
the spark gap system is less than 2 %.
By using a tungsten-copper composite in
the switching spark gap, burn-off of the
switching spark gaps becomes negligible
even if several stages are connected in
a parallel circuit.

Fig. 8 - Oscillogram of a 1140/9620 us

switching impulse voltage. /
( 500,us/calibration
lOOO,us/calibration

mark or
mark.)
7

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