Influence of Alumina Surface Roughness and Electric Field Distribution on Charging Characteristics in Vacuum

摘要

In the electrical insulation design of high voltage vacuum circuit breakers and vacuum interrupters (VCB/VI), we investigate the charging mechanisms on an alumina insulator surface in vacuum. In this paper, we quantified the influence of the insulator surface roughness on the charging characteristics in two kinds of electrode configuration; perpendicular and parallel electric lines of force to the alumina surface. Experimental results revealed that the charging characteristics are much different between the types of configuration. These are greatly influenced by the surface roughness of alumina insulator. We quantitatively discussed the influence of the surface roughness of alumina insulator to the charging mechanism.