Metallic particle movement, corona, and breakdown in compressed gas insulated transmission line systems

A simplified computational algorithm has been developed to study the behavior of metallic particles in gas insulated transmission line (GITL) systems. The model provides an estimate of the effectiveness of particle trapping for a particular trap design at a given commissioning voltage. Results of measured breakdown probabilities of particle contaminated SF₆ show fair agreement with calculated values. A computational model was developed to calculate the corona inception voltage due to conducting particle motion in GITL systems. The computed results for various parameters were in fair agreement with the measured values. A corona pulse pattern is computed and plotted using the same algorithm. Oscillographic records of the transient corona show that particle discharge is larger for long particles, and its magnitude increases with voltage level. Corona patterns obtained in the laboratory indicate that conducting particles can be detected in GITL systems and that the particle size can be determined through partial discharge measurements with AC voltage at different gas pressures