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INTRODUCIION
The purpose of our work is to bring a contribution to the study of partial
discharges (PD's) in gaseous cavities subjected to an A.C. voltage between
dielectric surfaces, or between a metal and a dielectric. The subject of PD's in
solid insulation has drawn considerable attention for a long time ([l] to [SI).
The interest generated by it has been recently renewed as demonstrated by
the papers of Devins [6] and Bartnikas [7]. Most of the work has been
devoted to the degradation of solid materials by PD's under A.C., whereas
discharge mechanisms were mainly studied with D.C. [6] . The aim of this
paper is to present and analyse briefly the characteristic features of
discharges under A.C. and to compare them to those obtained in [6]. This
work was undertaken with the view to get a better understanding of the
fundamental mechanisms involved in the "gassing" of liquids ( e.g., their
ability to generate or to absorb gases under the effect of PD's).
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visualization
metallized glass
insulating solid (polypropylene
spacer (polypropylene)
cell body (PTFE)
ground electrode (aluminum)
1- '
CRO.
334
the instantaneous discharge currents were also performed with a 400 MHz
memory oscilloscope on a matched load.
RESULTS AND D I S a S I O N
Under A.C. voltage, whatever the materials used, the two discharge
mechanisms already described by Raether [91 and Devins [61 under D.C. or
step voltages were observed: Townsend discharges (TD's) and streamer
discharges (SD's). According to [6], both the discharge amplitude and the
transition from TD's to SD's are determined by the overvoltage AV above the
Paschen threshold VP. Under A.C., the electric field in the gas is progressively
re-established between two successive discharges by capacitive coupling
with the metallic electrodes. Beyond the Paschen threshold, the field in the
gas keeps on increasing, until1 a triggering event (e.g. a seed electron)
appears. Such an event appears at random, which induces a statistical
distribution of AV, leading to a somewhat large scatter on observed events.
Among the numerous experimental parameters which may influence the
discharge processes according to this description, the following were studied
[12]:
U.V. illumination.
When the gas is illuminated with a U.V. source (a high pressure Hg arc lamp
focused with quartz lenses), a reduction of discharge inception voltages Vi is
measured (up to 300V in CHI, 200V in H2, 150V in N2 with a 0.6mm gap), as
well as a relative decrease of individual discharge amplitudes and an
increase of their frequency. The transitions from SD to TD -s are also greatly
favoured.
Time durat ion of exposure to PD's. d e o r u t ion of materials.
As the exposure time to PD's increases, an evolution of the discharge regime
is generally observed, which reflects a conditioning of both gases and solid
(or liquid) dielectrics. Large discharges (amplitude in the 10-50nC range) are
first detected (called "Artgime in [lo]), their inception voltage Vi being 5 to
40% superior to the Paschen threshold Vp. The duration of this regime is
strongly dependent on the gas nature (a few seconds in H2, tens of minutes
in N2, and several hours in CHq or Ar). A second discharge regime (called "B",
amplitude 1-30nC) is then observed, characterised by Vi = Vp. In some cases
(for example with N2), a third regime ("C") appears, with individual
discharges undiscernable with the parallelogram method (see fig.3). In most
cases, when the gas is continuously renewed, the succession of regimes is
slowed down, and sometimes inhibited (in N2, the B-regime becomes stable
for hours).
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cavity (+2cm)
8nC
-i 7
q=soopc
396