Carbon nanotube based Surface Acoustic Wave gas sensor for condition monitoring of gas insulated switchgear systems

Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is the most common gas insulation medium used in a gas insulated switchgear (GIS) system. Though SF6 is a very good insulator, it is also a potential greenhouse gas having a global warming potential of 22 800 over a period of 100 years. Therefore its leakage to the environment should be strictly monitored. And also partial discharge or arcing in the SF6 filled switchgear chambers can reduce the life and quality of insulation and few of the constituent gases during partial discharge are toxic in nature. The early detection of partial discharge is necessary to prevent the quality degradation and failure of the system. Hence it becomes very essential to monitor the leakage and partial discharge detection regularly in a GIS. In this work, a simulation study has been carried out to detect SF6 leakage using carbon nanotube based MEMS/NEMS sensor which detects target gases at room temperature.