Calculation of Maximum Voltage Gradients, Part I: Bundle Conductors

A new analytical method is described for computing the maximum field intensity at the surface of any smooth conductor of a multiconductor system forming a regular polygon. In this method, each conductor in the system is replaced by a line charge at its center equal to the charge on its surface plus a system of line dipoles to account for the proximity effect. The line dipoles in the conductor under consideration are treated as individual line charges. The degree of accuracy of the method, for the two-conductor case, is checked against the known exact solution. It is shown that this method is very accurate even for small conductor spacing to diameter ratios (less than 6), where existing analytical methods become very inaccurate.