Corona onset as a design optimization criterion for high voltage hardware

Hardware for use on HV systems is designed to be corona free. Recent hardware design activity has been centered around attempts to increase the corona onset voltage by optimizing the electric field distribution on its surface. Corona onset, however, is not only a function of the surface electric field, but also its rate of decay away from the surface, and the temperature and pressure of the gas in which it is immersed. While corona onset is a better criterion, formulas for predicting it have been validated only for simple geometries. The first goal of this work, then, is to validate corona onset conditions for more practical electrode geometries. The second goal is to determine whether the use of corona onset rather than surface electric field as an optimization criterion can result in hardware with a measurably higher corona onset voltage. To test this idea, two electrodes were designed, one using electric field optimization and the second using corona onset optimization. The corona onset voltage of each electrode was then measured and the results compared with predicted values. It was found that the measured results compared favorably with the predicted values and that the use of corona onset optimization can result in a modest but measurable increase in corona onset voltage.