Influence of the surface conductivity of a single glass barrier on the breakdown voltage in an air insulated rod plane arrangement

The effect of barrier systems on electrical breakdown is well known and of wide use in the field of high voltage engineering. As shown in literature, barriers can increase the breakdown voltage of an electrode configuration. The effect of the surface conductivity of the barrier system on the breakdown voltage has not yet been studied in full detail. The aim of this contribution is to show this effect. For that purpose, we investigated a rod plane arrangement with 80mm distance between high voltage electrode (rod) and a grounded plate electrode. A single barrier was placed in the arrangement and its surface resistivity was decreased systematically. The decrease of the breakdown voltage of the arrangement with decreasing surface resistivity has been shown for positive and negative lightning impulse and AC voltage as well.