Working Group A3.

17 Evaluation of stresses of Surge Arresters and appropriate test procedures

Introduction
The first Cigr Technical Brochure about surge arresters was published in 1991 (TB 60) describing effects on gapless metal oxide surge arresters (MO arresters) from various electrical stresses encountered in 3-phase AC systems. Since then, continued improvements in equipment technologies coupled with deregulated power industrys interest in maximizing utilization of existing infrastructure has revolutionized MO arrester applications and their expected performance in a more stressful environment. Working Group A3.17 of SC A3 took over the task to evaluate the stresses on MO arresters and review the existing test procedures. Further on, the actual state of MO arrester design was investigated as well as various applications in different types of electrical networks. Emphasis was given to the MO resistors as the active part of the MO arresters. A research project was started to investigate the energy handling capability of the MO resistor under different impulse stresses.

b c d e a arrester with porcelain housing b tube design c cage design completely molded in silicon. d distribution arrester directly molded (cage design) e distribution arrester wrapped design

Stresses on MO arresters
Electrical stresses on MO arresters can be divided in stresses with power frequency, which can have long time durations (temporary overvoltages), and impulse stresses of short time duration resulting from switching and lightning. Ambient stresses can be very different in the different regions of the world. Very cold climates with ice and snow loads have to be considered as well as high temperature and high humidity. Mechanical stresses like seismic loads strongly influence the structure and materials used for the design of the MO arresters. Vibration as well as static loads have to be considered and appropriate test procedures have been developed accordingly. Observations of biological growth on the surface of polymer insulation have been made in various places. Three types of organic growth have been identified: Algae, Fungi and Lichen. Despite all the reports of biological growth on the insulation in some areas of the world there are up to now no known failures of MO arresters caused by it.

Voltage-current characteristic of a MO arrester with In=10 kA. The voltage is normalized to the residual voltage of the arrester at In.

Energy handling capability of MO resistors

The energy handling capability of MO arresters has many different aspects, which are only partly or not at all reflected in the actual standards. The energy handling capability has to be divided into the thermal and the impulse energy handling capability. For the impulse energy handling capability single impulse stress, multiple impulse stress (without sufficient cooling between the impulses), and repeated impulse stress (with sufficient cooling between the stresses) have to be considered. Thermal energy handling capability can only be considered for complete arresters, as it is mainly effected by the heat dissipation capability of the overall arrester design, besides the MO block properties. For the tests with impulse stresses, an extended failure criterion, beyond simple visible damages, was used for the first time to differentiate the various failure modes and to quantify changes in the material characteristics.
Energy in J/cm 5 0 0 -5 Change of U ch in % -10 -15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 "Size 2" Diameter 40 mm Height (30..40) S U V W x Y 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1.000

Typical voltage and current waveforms of a MO surge arrester

Continuous operating voltage Uc

Rated voltage Ur

Reference voltage Uref

Switching current Nominal current impulse In impulse Isw

Steep current impulse Ist

High current impulse Ihc

Design of MO arresters
Different design principles are used for MO arresters, depending on expected electrical, mechanical and ambient stresses. For high voltage MO arresters still porcelain housings are used besides the growing number of hollow core insulators with outer polymer insulation (so called tube designs) and the designs with the polymeric material (mostly silicon) directly molded on the internal parts. For distribution arresters in medium voltage systems almost exclusively the direct molded design is used.

Change of a characteristic a.c. voltage Uch (approximately corresponding to the arresters reference voltage) specified in the low current region vs the energy injection by a 4/10 s impulse current. These tests were performed on MO resistors for use in distribution arresters for medium voltage systems.

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Working Group A3.25 MO-Varistors and surge arresters for emerging system conditions

Impulse energy handling capability of MO-Varistors

Single impulse energy handling capability
1800 Mean failure energy in J/cm 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 600 400 200 0 0.1 S T 1 10 100 1000 10000 Amplitude of current density in A/cm U V X Z [Ringler 1997] a.c.
"station class MO-Varistor" Diameter 60 mm Height 40...45 mm

Thermal stability limit of surge arresters

Thermal stationary temperature at different surge arrester configurations
250

1 ms 200 90/200 s height / cm 150 100 50 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 temperature (above ambient temperature) / K MO-Varistor Type I, without grading ring at 40 C (ambient) MO-Varistor Type I, with grading ring at 40 C (ambient) MO-Varistor Type I, without grading ring at 22 C (ambient) MO-Varistor Type II, without grading ring at 40 C (ambient) MO-Varistor Type II, without grading ring at 22 C (ambient) MO-Varistor Type II, with grading ring at 22 C (ambient) MO-Varistor Type II, with worse grading ring at 22 C (ambient) The thermal stability limits were tested on a surge arrester (for 220 kV system voltage) under different (even worst case) conditions at different ambient temperatures. The stationary temperatures for different configurations are shown in the diagram above. 22 C with grading stable instable stable instable stable instable stable instable 220 223 221 226 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240 mean absolute temperature of MO-Varistor Type II / C 228 231 229 232

100 ms 8s

4 ms

The results of the single impulse energy handling capability of six international well established manufacturers are shown in the diagram above. Each point of each manufacturer was determined by testing of roughly 50 new MO-Varistors. In total, more than 3000 MO-Varistors were tested. The thermal energy handling capability (which is the design value for standard surge arrester applications) was not tested. The following could be concluded: Mean failure energy increases with increasing current (density) until secondary failure mechanism occur The energy handling capability has increased in the last ten years at least by 20 % (comparable measurements only for A.C. energy injections) At high current densities, changes of the VI-Characteristic reduce the energy handling capability

Energy handling capability after pre-stresses

1.25 failure energy in p.u. 1.00 0.75 0.50 0.25 0.00

Energy handling capability after 20 pre-stresses with impulse current 90/200 s vs. A.C. at different energy values is shown above. The failure energy (measured by A.C. energy injection) after the pre-stress is normalized to the energy handling capability of a new MO-Varistor. Each point represents the result of one measured MO-Varistor. The following could be concluded: Short impulses with high current density and high current steepness reduce the energy handling capability. At A.C. pre-stresses has no measurable impact on the energy handling capability, even for higher pre-stress energy levels.

40 C without grading

40 C with grading

22 C without grading

The mean temperatures at the thermal stability limit of the worst case scenario with MO-Varistor Type II is shown in the depiction above. The following could be concluded: High-voltage surge arresters can be operated in stable conditions with minimized or even no grading rings at all. The thermal stability limit, in terms of average arrester temperature, is not affected by the degree of grading. However, higher average continuous operating temperatures will reduce thermal energy handling capability, and resistance of the materials used in the arrester to high operating or transient temperatures has to be regarded.

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