• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.20-23
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• 2012

Superconducting equipment has been actively investigated for securing the environment and energy technology (ET) in various parts of the world. Despite these movements, a high voltage cryogenic bushing, which plays an important role of interconnection between the electric power systems and superconducting devices, has not been fully developed due to severe insulation requirements. A gas insulated cryogenic bushing has been investigated as one of our projects since 2010. As a basic step to obtain the design parameters for cryogenic bushing, we focused on the surface flashover characteristics of glass fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) in several insulation gases. For the surface flashover tests, several insulation gases including $SF_6$, $CF_4$ and $N_2$ gas were prepared. Various length of FRP specimens were fabricated in order to obtain the fundamental data for creepage distance of FRP. The first specimen group was from 2 mm to 10 mm with 2 mm intervals and the second specimen group was from 20 mm to 100 mm with 20 mm intervals. And the gas pressure was varied from 1 bar to 4 bar. An AC overvoltage test and a lightning impulse test were performed. Then the experimental results of surface flashover were obtained and analyzed. Based on these results, it would be possible to design the optimum creepage distance of FRP in a cryogenic bushing.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.207-210
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• 2017

The suspension arrangement of insulators provides flexibility and assists in power transmission in transmission lines. The performance of the insulator string is strongly influenced by the environmental conditions to which it is exposed, its shape and the inherent material properties of suspension-type insulators. The suspension-type insulators are mostly made from glass, porcelain and ceramic material due to their high resistivity. Irregularity in charge distribution throughout the porcelain insulator may lead to accelerated aging and electrical breakdown. A very high and steep lightning impulse voltage may also cause breakdown of suspension-type insulators. We investigated various material characteristics such as alumina addition, surface morphology, x-ray diffraction pattern and relative density of suspension porcelain insulators manufactured in 1989 (36,000 lbs.), 1995 (36,000 lbs.) and 2001 (36,000 lbs.) by the KRI Company for use in 154 kV high power transmission lines. We compared the material characteristics of these porcelain insulators with that of the top-of-the-line porcelain insulators (36,000 lbs.) manufactured by the NGK Company in 2000. These suspension-type porcelain insulators were exposed to arc and flashover tests to examine their electrical and mechanical strength. It was noted that alumina addition (17 wt.%) for K-2001 was one of the major contributors to the enhancement of the performance of the porcelain insulators and to their ability to withstand very high current generation during the arc test. The porcelain insulators manufactured during 2001 also showed the highest relative density of 95.8% as compared to the other insulators manufactured in 1989 and 1995 respectively 94.2% and 91.5%. We also discuss reports of various failure modes of suspension-type porcelain insulators.