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Liquid Insulation and

Solid Insulation

Purpose
• Protect solid insulation from discharge
• Extinguish arcing
• Efficiently remove heat (cooling)

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Requirements
• Low viscosity (resistance of fluid - thickness)
• Cooling properties
• Liquid fills all voids in solid insulation
• Viscosity must remain small at low temperatures
• Cannot become solid. Solidification temperature less
than -40 °C)
• Chemically stable
• Maintain insulating properties through long service
life in varying conditions

Requirements Depend on Application

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Mineral Oil
• Most common liquid insulation
• Typical mineral oil is transformer oil
• Easy availability and economical
• Properties defined in IEC 60296
• Good dielectric properties for insulation and low
viscosity for cooling
• Prone to oxidization and flammability (flash point
over 130 °C)
• Moisture and impurities affect insulating properties

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Synthetic Liquid Insulation

Breakdown in Liquid Insulation

• In relatively clean and homogenous liquids,
the breakdown mechanism is similar to
breakdown in gas
• Electric field is applied to the charge carriers
in the liquid (electrons already present in the
liquid and those released from the cathode
through emission and electrochemical
processes)
• Electrons move in the opposite direction of the
field
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• If the energy of the electrons is sufficient,

dissociation of molecules by collisional
ionization occurs (ionic compounds split into
smaller particles – opposite of recombination)
• Microscopic gas bubbles form in liquid
• Due to the density of the liquid, it is hard for
electrons to achieve much energy between
collisions
• Townsend avalanches and new free charges
can form in the BUBBLES (smaller density)
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Breakdown in Liquid Insulation

Mobility of electrons in the liquid is 105 times

greater than positive ions
• electrons leave behind a concentration of
positive ions
• these charge concentrations enhance electric
field in certain regions and further advance
ionization
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• Eventually the bubble (or row of bubbles) will

expand across the electrode gap
• an ionized channel is formed and advanced by
streamer discharge
• the channel has lower density and smaller
dielectric strength than the rest of the liquid
• continuous current flows through the channel
• Free charges created by ionization inside the
bubble are displaced by the electric field the
bubble is stretched and grows in size
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Breakdown in Liquid Insulation

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Dielectric strength of liquid is hard to determine:

• not constant
• once oxidation, electrochemical reactions, and
impurities affect the liquid, its insulating
properties are not the same
• dielectric strength of liquid measured in
homogeneous gap even though most insulators
are inhomogeneous

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Temperature and pressure affect the liquid’s

dielectric strength
• As temperature increases, viscosity decrease
which increases the speed of electrons
between collisions and increase the probability
for breakdown
• As pressure increases, the formation of
bubbles is more difficult which improves the
dielectric strength of the liquid.

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Solid Insulation

Requirements – Examples - Breakdown

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Purpose
• Mechanical support for conducting
components
• Electrical insulation
Requirements
• Mechanical strength
• Dielectric strength
• Heat tolerance

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Breakdown in Solid Insulation

• Mechanism of breakdown in solids remains
unclear
• When voltage stress is increased close to
breakdown:

Current through insulator increases
exponentially (similar to gas)

Assumed to be caused by increasing number of
charge carriers in the insulation and electrode
surfaces
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• In practice, other factors affect breakdown

besides the increase of electrons:

Pre-discharge current and dielectric losses
causing heat

Electrostatic forces at interfaces

Electrochemical reactions

Water trees, erosion

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Breakdown in Solid Insulation

In general:
• Breakdown is caused by energy provided by
an electric field
• Energy transfer can occur by:
1. Collision Ionization (electric breakdown)
2. Thermal Losses (thermal breakdown)

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• Breakdown leads to thermal destruction of

insulator (melting, charring, vaporizing)

• Permanent loss of insulating properties (not

self-restoring like gases)

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Breakdown Mechanisms in Solid Insulation

• Electrical Breakdown
• Intrinsic Breakdown
• Partial Discharge
• Electrical Treeing
• Electromechanical Breakdown
• Thermal Breakdown
• Electrolytic Breakdown

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Electrical Breakdown
Multi-stage phenomenon influenced by:
• Different ionization mechanisms
• Space charges in discharge channel
• Heating of insulator material
• Molecular structure deformations

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• Discharge occurs when critical field strength is

exceeded locally assumed to begin at
inhomogeneous region of the insulation or
electrode surface
• Insulation is destroyed by different chemical
and physical processes
• Conducting channel with numerous charge
carriers starts to progress
• Complete breakdown occurs when the channel
has bridged the electrodes
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Intrinsic (Internal) Breakdown

• Intrinsic strength is a property of the
MATERIAL and TEMPERATURE only
• In pure homogeneous dielectric materials the
conduction and valence bands are separated by
a large energy gap and at room temperature the
electrons cannot acquire sufficient thermal
energy to make transitions from valence to
conduction band.

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• When an electric field is applied, the conduction

electrons gain energy due to collisions between them
and the energy is shared by all electrons.
• For a stable condition, this energy must be somehow
dissipated.
• The field raises the energy of the electrons more
rapidly than they can transfer it to the lattice.
• Electron temperature increases and conduction
continues to increase to a complete breakdown.

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Partial Discharge Breakdown

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Electrical Treeing
• If stress is continuous, eventually discharges
will advance through a solid insulator in a
branching erosion path (electric tree) along
which a complete breakdown can occur
• Treeing commences at impurities on the
electrode or in the insulation (pre-breakdown
phenomenon)

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• Water treeing – moisture advances in insulator under

the influence of the electric field
• E.g. Chemical degradation of polymeric insulation
such as XLPE or EPR that only occurs in the
presence of water and electrical stress (initiates from
inhomogenities within the insulation or at
insulation/screen interface)
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Electromechanical Breakdown
• Mechanical force between charges at
electrodes causes pressure (force of attraction
between surface charges)

(not very common for typical insulators)

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Electromechanical Breakdown
Mechanical collapse when electrostatic compressive
forces exceed mechanical compressive strength:

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Thermal Breakdown
• An electric field causes the insulator to
experience heat produced by conductivity and
dielectric losses
• as temperature of the insulator increases
conductivity increases → more heating
• the dissipation factor tan δ increases with
temperature → more dielectric losses
• If heat is being produced in the insulator faster
than it is removed by cooling → thermal
breakdown
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1- Field strength E1:

insulator temperature stabilizes at t1
• no thermal breakdown
2- Field strength E2:
temperature increases to t2
• unstable (small temporary fluctuation can lead
to thermal breakdown)
3- Stabilization point unreachable
• thermal breakdown
• Heat produced at E3 always exceeds cooling
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Electrolytic Breakdown

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Breakdown in Solid Insulation

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Practical Insulators
OHL Components
Cables
Bushings

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• Insulators are needed to support live (voltage)

components so that their distance to grounded
parts and other devices is maintained.
• All organic insulators are influenced by
temperature and stress duration

Above certain temperature hard plastic
becomes soft and its mechanical and dielectric
properties degrade

As temperature decreases plastic becomes
brittle and its impact strength weakens

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All outdoor insulators need to consider:

• Voltage withstand strength
• Surface distance
• Dirt accumulation prevention
• Self-cleaning (aerodynamic shape)
• Water sealing
• Mechanical strength – arcing, erosion, UV
radiation, thermal reaction

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Overhead Line Components

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Glass Insulators
• Toughened glass

Improved mechanical strength

Smaller size
• Microscopic fractures on glass surface during
manufacturing

Shattering caused by mechanical impact or
erosion (surface impurities)

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Ceramic Insulators
• Typically porcelain

Weaker mechanical and electrical strength
compared to toughened glass.
Different constituents in porcelain have different
thermal expansion at varying temperatures
• No shattering and easier to manufacture large
insulators

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Voltage distribution depends on capacitance ratio Cv/Ce

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Composite Insulators
• Manufactured from at least two different
insulating materials
• Used in overhead lines as insulator strings,
phase separators and external insulation for
surge arresters, bushings, transformers
• Protect core from moisture/chemicals/UV
radiation/surface discharge
• PD can release hydrogen which forms acid
when combined with moisture leading to
fracture 48

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+ mechanical strength
+ light weight
+ elastic (hard to vandalize)
– cost
– uncertain long term stability

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Cable Insulation
AC: plastic – PVC, PE, XLPE (PEX)
DC: HVDC transmission (> 150 kV) with oil-
paper insulation
• plastic – polarization state does not change fast
enough when polarity is changed or voltage
transients are applied to the cable
• critical field strength is exceeded – breakdown.

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Paper Insulation (In Cables)

10 – 50 mm wide paper tape wrapped around the
conductor with small gaps left between adjacent tapes
• next layer is positioned to avoid continuous radial
layering
• the positioning of the tape is called registration and
describes how much the layers are on top of each
other

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Inhomogeneous construction:
• paper enables formation of thin, high dielectric
strength oil sheet layers and prevents impurities from
traveling between layers
• defines mechanical properties – cannot bend cable so
that the layers connect

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Cable Design

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Small cavities and impurities are unavoidable in the

cable
Screens (semiconducting layers) are placed between the
conductor and insulation layer and also between the
insulation layer and the sheath.
1. conductor/insulation – conductor screen (conductor
cover)
2. insulation/sheath – insulation screen (corona shield)

Screens help to maintain

the cylindrical
symmetry of the field

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Cable Joints

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Cable Terminations
• Local concentration of electric field occurs
where a conducting electrode continues and
the grounded electrode terminates

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Grading of the electric field is necessary

• grading is done by
adding a stress cone on
top of the cable
insulation
• the stress cone has a
conducting layer on its
surface or in its interior
aim is to maintain a small
and constant field
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Bushing (Feed-through Insulator)

A live conductor is fed through a grounded enclosure
To avoid electric field concentration:
• Electrodes and insulation shape is considered
• Grading ring can be applied
• Capacitive grading – field electrodes added

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