• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.128-133
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• 2008

This paper describes underwater discharge phenomena and breakdown characteristics in case that the standard lightning impulse voltage is injected to the needle and spherical electrodes installed in the hemisphere water tank. The objective of this work is to understand the basic features related to transient ground impedance against lightning surges. The discharge luminous images were observed and the dependence of breakdown voltage on the polarity of applied voltage and water resistivity were investigated. As a consequence, streamer corona is initiated at the tip of needle and spherical electrodes and is propagated toward grounded tank with stepwise extension. The breakdown voltage characteristics measured as a function of water resistivity showed V-shaped curves. Breakdown voltage and time curve of needle electrode is higher than that of spherical electrode.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.66 no.2
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• pp.363-369
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• 2017

This paper presents the experimental results related to soil ionization and electrical breakdown in a concentric hemispherical electrode system under lightning impulse voltages. Dynamic voltage-current and impedance-time characteristics of soil ionization were measured and analyzed. Also the electrical breakdowns of the soil gap were investigated. The time-lag to the peak current corresponds to the soil ionization propagation. The time of ionization propagation in wet sand is found to decrease with increasing the impulse currents. A drastic decrease in ground resistance was observed during the impulse current spreading in sand. The electrical breakdown appears at the wave tail of impulse voltage and results in a wide scatter in V-t curves. The voltage-current curves have a fan-like shape attributed to ionization processes which result in increasing current and decreasing voltage.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.446-454
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• 2016

In this paper, we present experimental results of the soil discharge characteristics as a function of moisture content when a 1.2/50-㎲ lightning impulse voltage is applied. For this study, laboratory experiments were carried out based on factors affecting the transient behavior in soils. The electrical breakdown voltages in soils were measured for a 0-6% range of moisture content for sand and a 0 - 4% range of moisture content for gravel. A test cell with semi-spherical electrodes buried face-to-face in the middle of a cylindrical container was used. The distance separating the electrodes is 100 mm. As a result, the time-lag to breakdown in soils decreases as the amplitude of applied voltage increases. The time-lag to initiation of ionization streamer is decreased, with an increase in the moisture content. However, the formative time-lag is rarely changed. The behavior of soil discharges depend not only on the type of soil and its moisture content but also on the amplitude of the impulse voltage. When the test voltage is applied repeatedly, electrical breakdown occurs along different discrete paths, leading radially away from the injected electrode. i.e., the fact that the ionization streamers propagate in different paths from shot to shot was observed.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.28 no.10
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• pp.82-88
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• 2014

This paper presents the results of model tests for the attachment process of lightning leader to ground which is one of poorly understood processes of cloud-to-ground lightning discharges. In order to simulate the attachment process of lightning leader to ground, we investigated the discharge characteristics of air gap between the tip of needle-shaped electrode and the soil surface as a parameter of moisture content in soils when the positive and negative $1.2/50{\mu}s$ lightning impulse voltages are applied. The breakdown voltage and the discharge light were observed. As a result, the attachment processes of lightning leader to ground are strongly dependent on the grain size and the moisture content of soils. The time to breakdown was shortened with increasing the magnitude of incident impulse voltages. The delay time from application of the highest voltage to breakdown in sand is shortened with increasing the moisture content. The delay time from application of the voltage to breakdown in gravel varied from about $0.5{\mu}s$ to several ${\mu}s$. As the moisture content in soil increases, the breakdown voltages are decreased and the breakdown voltage versus time to breakdown curves are shifted toward the lower side. The results obtained in this work are similar to those for non-uniform air gap stressed by lightning impulse voltages.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.24 no.8
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• pp.126-132
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• 2010

This paper presents dielectric characteristics of $N_2$ gas under impulse voltages in a quasi-uniform electric field gap. The experiments were carried out at the test gap applied by the 1.2/50[${\mu}s$] lightning impulse voltage, 180/2500[${\mu}s$] switching impulse voltage, 500[ns]/1[MHz] very fast transient overvoltage(VFTO). The gap separation of sphere-to-plane electrodes was 14[mm] and the electric field utilization factor was about 71.2[%]. The gas pressure ranges from 0.2 to 0.6[MPa]. As a result, the electrical breakdowns are occurred by streamer discharge. Breakdown voltages are linearly increased with the gas pressure and the highest breakdown voltage is appeared under the VFTOs having fast rising time. Breakdown voltages under the positive impulse voltages were higher than those under the negative ones, and also the time to breakdown in the positive polarity is longer than that in the negative polarity.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.103-109
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• 2010

In this paper, breakdown characteristics of soil in a coaxial cylindrical electrode system stressed by impulse currents were experimentally investigated. The breakdown voltage and current waveforms for 4 types of soils were measured, and the threshold electric field intensity, the time-lag to breakdown and the voltage-current (V-I) curves were analyzed and discussed. As a result, the breakdown voltage and current waveforms are strongly dependent on the grain size of soil, and the voltage and current waveforms for gravel and sand differ from those for silt and loess. The threshold electric field intensity Ec is increased in the order of gravel, sand, loess and silt. The V-I curves for all test samples show a 'cross-closed loop' of ${\infty}$-shape. Also, the time-lag to breakdown for gravel and sand are longer than those for silt and loess. It is expected that the results presented in this paper will provide useful information on the design of improving transient performance of a grounding electrode system subjected to lightning current considering the soil ionization.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.329-336
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• 2010

The paper describes the electrical and optical properties of underwater discharges in highly inhomogeneous electric fields caused by 1.2/50 ${\mu}s$ impulse voltages as functions of the polarity and amplitude of the applied voltage, and various water conductivities. The electric fields are formed by a point-to-plane electrode system. The formation of air bubbles is associated with a thermal process of the water located at the tip of the needle electrode, and streamer coronas can be initiated in the air bubbles and propagated through the test gap with stepped leaders. The fastest streamer channel experiences the final jump across the test gap. The negative streamer channels not only have more branches but are also more widely spread out than the positive streamer channels. The propagation velocity of the positive streamer is much faster than that of the negative one and, in fact, both these velocities are independent of the water conductivity; in addition the time-lag to breakdown is insensitive to water conductivity. The higher the water conductivity the larger the pre-breakdown energy, therefore, the ionic currents do not contribute to the initiation and propagation of the underwater discharges in the test conditions considered.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2004.07b
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• pp.1142-1145
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• 2004

ZnO surge arresters continuously endure the operating voltages during the operation course, and in the mean time, which need to withstand occasionally transient voltages of lightning and switching overvoltages. Under these voltages, the ZnO varistors inside arresters would have aging phenomena, one important result of aging phenomena is the increasing of resistive currents of varistors, which leads to the increasing of power losses of varistors. And the operating voltage is continuously applied on the ZnO varistors, there is a degradation phenomenon existing in ZnO varistors. When the degradation reaches a certain degree, then the arrester must stop operation. The degradation is related to the applied voltage ratio, the applied voltage ratio is high, the degradation is quickly. When the power loss is higher than the thermal dispersion ability of house of arrester, then the arrester will thermally breakdown. In this study the thermal stability characteristics of surge arresters for high power wil be discussed on the view point of watt losses and thermal breakdown.