Development of Future Compact and Eco-Friendly HVDC Gas-Insulated Systems: Shape Optimization of a DC Spacer Model and Novel Materials Investigation

Nabila Zebouchi, Haoluan Li and Manu A. Haddad
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Nabila Zebouchi: Advanced High Voltage Engineering Research Centre, School of Engineering, Cardiff University, the Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK
Haoluan Li: Advanced High Voltage Engineering Research Centre, School of Engineering, Cardiff University, the Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK
Manu A. Haddad: Advanced High Voltage Engineering Research Centre, School of Engineering, Cardiff University, the Parade, Cardiff CF24 3AA, UK

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 12, 1-14

Abstract: Testing and validating the electrical insulation performance of full-size compact high-voltage direct current (HVDC) gas-insulated systems, gas-insulated transmission lines (GIL) and gas-insulated switchgears (GIS) is very costly and take long time. Therefore, a reduced scale system was designed and constructed to study thoroughly the spacer’s performance when subjected to higher electric fields under HVDC with different shapes, made of new advanced materials, and housed in new SF 6 -free gas environment. Since the stationary DC electric field distribution along the spacer is controlled by spacer material conductivity and strongly depends upon its shape, this, the first part of two articles, proposes in a first step based on electric field calculations with COMSOL Multiphysics software, an optimized shape of a spacer model using a standard high-voltage alternating current (HVAC) alumina-filled epoxy material. Then, two novel types of materials were introduced and investigated: (i) modified filled epoxy material with a lower temperature-dependent conductivity than that of the standard HVAC material, which is interpreted by a lower thermal activation energy; and (ii) nonlinear resistive field grading material with a low nonlinearity coefficient, with and without the presence of a temperature gradient which occurs under operating service load. The numerical results show that, despite that the DC optimized profile of the spacer made of standard HVAC, alumina-filled epoxy is very effective in relaxing the electric field magnitudes along the spacer under uniform temperature—its distribution is significantly affected by the presence of a high temperature gradient causing the maximum electric field shifts along the spacer surface towards the earthed flange. Under this condition, the modified filled epoxy material with a weaker temperature-dependent conductivity results in a significant reduction of the electric field enhancement, representing thus a relevant key solution for HVDC GIL/GIS applications. Nonlinear resistive field grading material is also effective but seems unnecessary. The optimized DC spacer models are being fabricated for tests verification with C4-Perfluoronitrile (C4-PFN, 3M TM Novec TM 4710)/CO 2 and Trifluoroiodomethane (CF 3 I)/CO 2 gas mixtures in the reduced scale gas-insulated test prototype.

Keywords: high voltage direct current (HVDC) gas-insulated systems; spacers; electric field distribution; surface charges (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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