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UnitUnit-IV
UNIT-IV
MEASUREMENT OF HIGH VOLTAGES
37. INTRODUCTION
In industrial testing and research laboratories, it is essential to measure the voltages
and currents accurately, ensuring perfect safety to the personnel and equipment. Hence a
person handling the equipment as well as the metering devices must be protected against
over-voltages and also against any induced voltages due to stray coupling. Therefore, the
location and layout of the devices are important. Secondly, linear extrapolation of the devices
beyond their ranges is not valid for high voltage meters and measuring instruments, and they
have to be calibrated for the full range.
Electromagnetic interference is a serious problem in impulse voltage and current
measurements, and it has to be avoided or minimized. Therefore, even though the principles
of measurements may be same, the devices and instruments for measurement of high voltages
and currents differ vastly from the low voltage and low current devices. Different devices
used for high voltage measurements may be classified as in Tables 7.1 and 7.2.
Table 7.1: High Voltage Measurement Techniques
Type of Voltage
Method or Technique
(i) Series Resistance Micro-ammeter
DC Voltages
AC Power Frequency
(iii)Potential Transformers
(Electromagnetic or CVT)
(iv) Electrostatic Voltmeters
(v) Sphere Gaps
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Method or Technique
(i) Resistive shunts with milli-ammeter
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AE 2
2
A
2S
V2,
(3.7)
Where = permittivity of the insulating medium and S = gap length between the parallel
plane electrodes.
The attracting force is always positive independent of the polarity of the voltage. If
the voltage is not constant, the force is also time dependent. Then the mean value of the force
is used to measure the voltage, thus:
1
A 1
A
2
F (t )dt = 2 2 (t )dt = 2 (Vr .m.s. ) ,
T0
2S T 0
2S
T
(3.8)
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would flow between electrode A and earth. This current results then from the time-dependent
charge density, (t,a), which is sketched as a one-dimensional distribution only. The amount
of charge can be integrated by
Where A is the area of the sensing electrode exposed to the field. This time-varying charge is
used by all kinds of field sensors, which use pick-up electrodes (rods, plates, etc.) only. If the
voltage V is constant, again a current i(t) will flow but only if M is moved, thus steadily
altering the surface field strength from full to zero values within the covered areas. Thus the
current is
i (t ) =
dq d
=
dt dt
(a)da = dt E (a)da
A( t )
(3.23)
A( t )
The integral boundary denotes the time-varying exposed area A(t) and (a) as well as
E(a) are also time dependent if the voltage is not constant. The field lines between H.V. and
sensing electrode comprise a capacitive system. Thus the charge q can be computed by an
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d
[C (t )V (t )]
dt
(3.24)
Various kinds of generating voltmeters use these basic equations and the manifold designs
differ in the constructional means for providing C(t) and interpreting the current i(t).
Generating voltmeters are very linear instruments and applicable over a wide range of
voltages. The sensitivity may be changed by the area of the sensing electrodes (or iris) as well
as by the current instrument or amplification. Their early application for the output voltage
measurement of a Van-de-Graffs thus may well be understood. Excessive space charge
accumulation within the gap between H.V. electrode and generating voltmeter, however,
must be avoided. The presence of space charges will be observed if the voltage is switched
off.
Vibrating electrometers are also generating voltmeters, but will only be mentioned here as
they are not widely used. The principle can well be understood with reference to Fig. 3.11
neglecting the movable disc. If the sensing electrode would oscillate in the direction of the
H.V. electrode, again a current i(t) = dq/dt is excited with constant voltage V due to a
variation of the capacitance C =C(t). The sensing electrode may also pick up charges when
placed just behind a small aperture drilled in a metal plate. Commercial types of such an
instrument are able to measure D.C. voltages down to 10 V, or currents down to 10-17A, or
charges down to 10-15pC, and its terminal resistance is as high as 1016 .
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(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
Series resistance meters are built for 500 kV D.C. with an accuracy better than 0.2%.
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the
In
horizontal
configurations, it is generally
arranged
such
that
both
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(i)
earthed sphere inside an earthed cylinder. It was observed that the sparkover voltage is
reduced. The reduction was observed to be
V= m log (B/D) + C
where,
(7.21)
V = percentage reduction,
B = diameter of earthed enclosing cylinder,
D = diameter of the spheres,
And m and C are constants.
The reduction was less than 2% for S/D < 0.5 and BID time 0.8. Even for S/D 1.0
and B/D 1.0 the reduction was only 3%. Hence, if the specifications regarding the
clearances are closely observed the error is within the tolerances and accuracy specified. The
variation of breakdown voltage with AID ratio is given in Figs. 7.19a and b for a 50 cm
sphere gap. The reduction in voltage is within the accuracy limits, if S/D is kept less than
0.6.A in the above ratio A/D is the distance from sparking point to horizontal ground plane
(also shown in Fig. 7.19)
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(ii)
changes in both temperature and pressure. If the sparkover voltage is V under test conditions
of temperature T and pressure p torr and if the sparkover voltage is V0 under standard
conditions of temperature T = 200C and pressure p = 760 torr, then
V = kVo
where k is a function of the air density factor d, given by:
d=
(iii)
p 293
760 273 + T
(7.22)
IRRADIATION:
Illumination of sphere gaps with ultra-violet or x-rays aids easy ionization in gaps. The effect
of irradiation is pronounced for small gap spacings. A reduction of about 20% in sparkover
voltage was observed for spacings of 0.1D to 0.3D for a 1.3 cm sphere gap with D.C.
voltages. The reduction in sparkover voltage is less than 5% for gap spacings more than 1 cm,
and for gap spacings of 2 cm or more it is about 1.5%. Hence, irradiation is necessary for
smaller sphere gaps of gap spacing less than 1 cm for obtaining consistent values.
(iv)
impulses are different. Experimental investigation showed that for sphere gaps of 6.25 to 25
cm diameter, the difference between positive and negative D.C. voltages is not more than 1%.
For smaller sphere gaps (2 cm diameter and less) the difference was about 8% between
negative and positive impulses of 1/50 s waveform. Similarly, the wave front and wave tail
durations also influence the breakdown voltage. For wave fronts of less than 0.5 s and wave
tails less than 5 s the breakdown voltages are not consistent and hence the use of sphere gap
is not recommended for voltage measurement in such cases.
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R1
and
R2
are
in
the
previous
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MIXED RC POTENTIAL DIVIDERS: Passive circuits are nowadays rarely used in the
measurement of peak values of high A.C. or impulse voltages. The rapid development of very
cheap integrated operational amplifiers and circuits during the last decades has offered many
possibilities to sample and hold such voltages and thus displace passive circuits.
Nevertheless, a short treatment of basic passive crest voltmeters will be included because the
fundamental problems of such circuits can be shown. The availability of excellent
semiconductor diodes has eliminated the earlier difficulties encountered in the application of
the circuits to a large extent. Simple, passive circuits can be built cheaply and they are
reliable. And, last but not least, they are not sensitive to electromagnetic impact, i.e. their
electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) is excellent. In contrast, sophisticated electronic
instruments are more expensive and may suffer from EMC problems. Passive as well as
active electronic circuits and instruments as used for peak voltage measurements are unable
to process high voltages directly and they are always used in conjunction with voltage
dividers which are preferably of the capacitive type.
A.C. VOLTAGES:
A capacitor divider reduces the high voltage V to a low magnitude. If R2 and Rd are neglected
and the voltage V increases, the storage capacitor Cs is charged to the crest value of V2
neglecting the voltage drop across the diode. Thus the D.C. voltage Vm +V2max could be
measured by a suitable instrument of very high input resistance. The capacitor Cs will not
significantly discharge during a period, if the reverse current through the diode is very small
and the discharge time constant of the storage capacitor very large. If V2 is now decreased, C2
will hold the charge and the voltage across it and thus Vm no longer follows the crest value of
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e r 2e d
Cs
C1 + C 2 + C s
IMPULSE VOLTAGES:
The measurement of peak values of impulse voltages with short times to crest (lightning
impulses) with passive elements only was impossible up to about 1950. Then the availability
of vacuum diodes with relatively low internal resistance and of vacuum tubes to build active
D.C. amplifiers offered the opportunity to design circuits for peak impulse voltage
measurement but of relatively low accuracy. Now, active highly integrated electronic devices
can solve all problems involved with passive circuits. The problems, however, shall shortly
be indicated by the following explanations. Impulse voltages are single events and the crest
value of an impulse is theoretically available only during an infinitely short time. The actual
crest value may less stringently be defined as a crest region in which the voltage amplitude is
higher than 99.5 per cent. For a standard 1.2/50 sec wave the available time is then about
1.1 sec. Consider now the simple crest voltmeter circuit of Fig. 3.14 discussed earlier,
omitting the discharge resistor Rd as well as R2. The diode D will then conduct for a positive
voltage impulse applied to the voltage divider, and the storage capacitor must be charged
during the rising front only. But instantaneous charging is only possible if the diode has no
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discharge
time
constant of Cs must
be longer than 103
sec,
and
interaction
thus
the
between
and
the
input resistance of the instrument necessary to measure the voltage across Cs should provide a
resultant leakage resistance of 1012. A measurement of this voltage with electrostatic or
electronic electrometers is essential, but the condition for the diodes reverse resistance can
hardly be met. To avoid this problem, a charge exchange circuit shown in Fig. 3.15 was
proposed.
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for
high
impulse
current
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PROBLEMS
Q. 1
What are the requirements of a sphere gap for measurement of high voltages? Discuss
the disadvantages of sphere gap for measurements.
Q. 2
Explain clearly the procedure for measurement of (i) impulse; (ii) A.C. high voltages
using sphere gap.
Q. 3
Discuss the effect of (i) nearby earthed objects (ii) humidity and (iii) dust particles on
the measurements using sphere gaps.
Q. 4
Describe the construction of a uniform field spark gap and discuss its advantages and
disadvantages for high voltage measurements.
Q. 5
Explain with neat diagram how rod gaps can be used for measurement of high
voltages. Compare its performance with a sphere gap.
Q. 6
Q. 7
Draw a neat schematic diagram of a generating voltmeter and explain its principle of
operation. Discuss its application and limitations.
Q. 8
Discuss the problems associated with peak voltmeter circuits using passive elements.
Draw circuit developed by Rabus and explain how this circuit overcomes these
problems.
Q. 9
What are the problems associated with measurement of very high impulse voltages?
Explain how these can be taken care of during measurements.
Q. 10 Discuss and compare the performance of (i) resistance (ii) capacitance potential
dividers for measurement of impulse voltages.
Q. 11 Discuss various resistance potential dividers and compare their performance of
measurement of impulse voltages.
Q. 12 Discuss various capacitance, potential dividers and compare their performance for
measurement of impulse voltages.
Q. 13 Draw a simplified equivalent circuit of a resistance potential divider and discuss its
step response.
Q. 14 Discuss various methods of measuring high D.C. and A.C. currents.
Q. 15 Discuss various methods of measuring high impulse currents.
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