Abstract
Gas insulated switchgears (GIS) are required to be downsized for the cost reduction, global warming mitigation and energy saving. For the downsizing of GIS, a novel electric field grading technique is highly expected. In order to solve this problem, we have been investigating the electric field control and relaxation technique by “functionally graded materials (FGM)” with spatial distribution of permittivity (ε-FGM) and/or conductivity (σ-FGM). In our previous works, post-type and truncated cone-type ε-FGM spacers were fabricated by “flexible mixture casting method” (FMC method). Compared with the conventional spacers (Uniform spacer) with a uniform permittivity distribution, the electric field grading effects of those ε-FGM spacers were simulated based on Volume-Time theory and verified by the measurement of their breakdown voltages.
In this paper, toward the application of ε-FGM to the actual GIS spacer, i.e. 30% reduction of spacer diameter or 50% reduction of cross section, we fabricated the 1/4-sized cone-type ε-FGM spacer. By grading the mixing ratio of SrTiO3 (εr=332) and SiO2 (εr=4) fillers in epoxy resin, a cone-type spacer with the diameter of 60 mm was fabricated by FMC method. The breakdown voltage of the ε-FGM spacer was measured in a tank filled with SF6 gas at 0.5 MPa-abs under the negative standard lightning impulse voltage by the step-up method. The maximum breakdown voltage of ε-FGM spacer was verified to be higher by 23% than the Uniform spacer with the same configuration and size of the ε-FGM spacer, which was also consistent with the simulated value.
