Motion and discharge characteristics of metal particles existing in GIS under DC voltage

Free particles formed in the discharge process or equipment aging severely threaten the operation security of GIS, which draws great attention of researchers. However, seldom research focuses on disc-type particle, which is the majority of shaped particles in practical GIS. In this paper, an elliptic coordination system is built for obtaining the theoretical lift-off electric field of disc-type particles, and experimental system and observation system are established for studying motion behavior and discharge characteristics of metal particles. Results show that for spherical particles, while the distance between two particles d<;9r
_s
, the downward force caused by impurities on electrodes can be neglected; for wire-type particles, as lengths of particles increase, lift-off electric fields and probabilities of Firefly tend to be larger. Besides, lift-off electric fields grow exponentially with the increases of radius. When length of particle exceeds 3 mm, the gap between practical values and theoretical values becomes larger with the decrease of radiuses; for disc-type particles, with the increase of radiuses, dispersions of lift-off electric field becomes larger; the difference between practical and theoretical values broadens with the fall of radiuses. Besides, lift-off electric fields of disc-type particles are higher than that of wire-type particles with same qualities and with the increase of radius, probabilities of Firefly increase in an unapparent speed in comparison to wire-type particles; in the end, discharge processes in SF
₆
gap are illustrated. When particles are close to the bottom electrode, the lower end of particles will breakdown first. Then the top end of particles will form streamer discharge. With the continuous development of streamer, the gap will eventually breakdown.