Journal of Physics: Conference Series

PAPER • OPEN ACCESS

Design and Development of 220kV SF6 Gas Insulated GIS Actual

Testing Platform
To cite this article: Shiling Zhang 2020 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 1634 012010

View the article online for updates and enhancements.

This content was downloaded from IP address 45.40.126.214 on 24/11/2020 at 14:52

CISAT 2020 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1634 (2020) 012010 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1634/1/012010

Design and Development of 220kV SF6 Gas

Insulated GIS Actual Testing Platform
Zhang Shiling
State Grid Chongqing Electric Power Company Chongqing Electric Power Research
Institute, Chongqing, 401123
526793305@qq.com

Abstract: To simulate the performance parameters of SF6 gas insulated AC GIS equipment
under normal and failure condition in the laboratory environment, and the development trend
of characteristic parameters such as partial discharge and SF6 gas decomposition can be
monitored periodically and quantitatively, the 220kV SF6 gas insulated GIS type test platform
is designed and developed. The test platform is in accordance with GIS specifications used in
substation, including gas insulated circuit breaker and other typical GIS equipment. The
external voltage is realized by the series resonant circuit. The paper starts from the design of
the GIS bus and the solid insulation structure, and the three-dimensional E-field distribution
characteristics of the solid insulator are simulated and analyzed. The hardware installation of
the partial discharge measurement and SF6 gas decomposition monitoring on GIS model test
platform are discussed. Through design and development of 220kV SF6 gas insulated GIS
type-test platform, the feasibility of the structure design of GIS bus and the solid insulation are
verified, it provides theoretical and practical basis for the operation and maintenance of SF6
gas insulated GIS equipment.

1.INTRODUCTION
GIS equipment is widely used in the substations of various voltage levels, which has many advantages,
such as less land occupation, easy maintenance, high reliability and so on. The operation inspection
data over years show that GIS equipment is prone to the pipeline partial discharge, the flash-over of
solid insulation parts and other accidents, which are caused by metal particles inside GIS pipes,
insulation defects of insulation parts and so on. High field strength and high temperature physical
environment caused by the above accidents will lead to the decomposition of SF6 gas[1]. At present,
the operation status of GIS equipment is evaluated by partial discharge monitoring and the SF6
decomposition gas monitoring devices, but it is difficult to set up insulation defect in GIS equipment
running on site of substation, quantitatively analyze its partial discharge characteristics, regularly and
quantitatively track and monitor decomposition characteristics of SF6 gas. In view of this, the 220kV
SF6 GIS test platform for gas insulation is designed under the laboratory conditions, which includes
key equipment such as the circuit breaker, dis-connector, voltage and current transformer, lightning
arrester, etc. The whole GIS true type test platform is applied with the series resonant circuit to apply
voltage, and SF6 gas insulation is used for the resonant device to realize compact design[2]. The test
platform is consistent with the specification of GIS for substation.
Starting from the structural design of GIS central bus and the solid insulation part, 3D E-field
distribution characteristics of the solid insulation parts are simulated and analyzed in this paper. The
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution
of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd 1
CISAT 2020 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1634 (2020) 012010 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1634/1/012010

GIS true test platform has passed the AC withstand voltage test of whole machine, and the UHF sensor
is installed on the test platform, and the vibration sensor unit is installed near the circuit breaker. On
the other hand, the installation of the basin insulator and the support insulator solid insulator is
completed at the main interval of GIS true type test platform. Through the design and development of
the 220kv SF6 GIS true type test platform, series resonance circuit can be applied to the GIS true type
test platform, and the feasibility of the structure design of GIS central bus and solid insulation parts
can be verified on true type test platform, which can provide certain theoretical and practical basis for
the operation and maintenance of the SF6 GIS equipment in service on site.

2.OVERALL DESIGN OF GIS CENTER BUS AND PLATFORM

2.1GIS central bus design

Firstly, design of central bus is considered for 220kV SF6 GIS true type test platform, and the
uniformity of electric field distribution and the control of maximum working field strength are mainly
emphasized in design[3]. Range of outer diameter R1 of the center conductor shall be determined
according to the allowable field strength E1. Topological structure between the inner center conductor
and the outer grounding metal flange of GIS true type test platform and the typical corona equalizing
hardware are shown in Figure 1. In the design, the surface field strength of central conductor in the
coaxial cylindrical electric field is mainly controlled as follows:
E = U th / [r1  ln(r2 / r1 )] (1)

Figure 1. Surface E-field distribution of conductor

The design value of lightning impulse withstand voltage of 220kV SF6 GIS true type test platform
is 550kV at 1.2/50μs, and the allowable lightning impulse field strength of conductor surface is
20kV/mm. Set the radius of the center conductor of the true type test platform R1=20mm, and the
radius of the shell R2=100mm. Substitute the above data into equation (1) and the surface field
strength of center conductor is about 17kV/mm, so true type test platform has high electrical safety
insulation margin. Center conductor chamfer is shown in Figure 1. The electric field distribution is
simulated by establishing the three-dimensional electric field calculation model. It can be seen from
the figure that highest field strength of central conductor under applied voltage of 220kV is
concentrated in the middle part of guide rod, and field strength value is about 3.56kV/mm, with high
electrical safety margin.

2.2Design of pot insulator

In 220kV SF6 GIS true type test platform, the solid insulator is mainly pot insulator. Design and
calculation of high voltage electrical performance and electric field are mainly considered in the
design and calculation. The field strength value of each part of the pot insulator shall be lower than the
allowable field strength value, such as allowable field strength of the internal insert surface of the
insulator, the allowable field strength of the tangent direction of the surface of the solid insulator, etc.
the design situation of outer contour of the typical pot insulator is shown in Figure 2.

2
CISAT 2020 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1634 (2020) 012010 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1634/1/012010

Figure 2. Outer outline design of basin insulator

It can be seen from the Figure that there are metal parts such as the center conductor, shield cover,
etc. in the basin insulator, and basin body material is epoxy resin material. The shields effectively
reduce electric field strength in three contact areas of the insulator, the metal conductor and SF6 gas.
The SF6 gas pressure of the true type test platform GIS pipeline is kept at 0.45GPa, and the basin
insulator can effectively divide the GIS pipeline into independent gas chambers to ensure gas pressure
stability in each gas chamber.

2.3Overall design of test platform

The 3D FEM calculation model is established for the key position of 220kV SF6 GIS true type test
platform. The voltage value during operation of the true type test platform is applied, and the local
electric field strength is simulated and analyzed to obtain the electric field strength value at the key
position of the solid insulation parts. The three-dimensional simulation model establishes the finite
element calculation model based on the actual size of solid insulation parts in the GIS true test
platform, and influence of high potential fittings on the surface electric field distribution of solid
insulation parts is mainly considered in the simulation calculation[4].

Figure 3. 220kV SF6 Gas Insulated GIS Actual Platform

Figure 4. Three dimensional FEM model of testing platform

3
CISAT 2020 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1634 (2020) 012010 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1634/1/012010

After design and calculation, overall layout of 220kV SF6 GIS true type test platform is shown in
Figure 3. Real platform is constructed in strict accordance with the above drawings, with an overall
length of 8.1m and the overall width of 4.5m. The maximum distance between the GIS gas outlet
sleeve and the ground is 5.338m. The real test platform is designed and constructed according to the
GIS equipment used in 220kV substation. The three-dimensional finite element simulation model of
the test platform is shown in Figure 4. The main part of the drawing is GIS pipeline, which is divided
into different gas chambers by pot insulator. An observation window is set up on the pipeline to detect
the visible spark discharge in the GIS pipeline under high voltage condition, and an UHF sensor is
installed here to measure the partial discharge in the pipeline. The power supply of whole true type test
platform is the series resonance system, which can be boosted from power frequency 220V to 680kV,
with rated current of 1.2A. The whole device is SF6 gas insulated, with high voltage generated by
resonance circuit and adjustable frequency in the range of 18-300Hz. The compact design of the
device overcomes the limitation of the traditional open series resonant high voltage generator due to
corona loss, and its local discharge is lower than 2pC, and the series resonance coefficient is 45. The
220kV true test platform can effectively simulate the electrical stress and thermal stress that GIS
equipment bears in actual operation. GIS equipment includes the pot insulator, tube bus insulation
support and other insulation parts. It provides SF6 gas field fault gas and solid products of insulation
parts fault for the physical and chemical analysis platform for the subsequent SF6 fault gas
composition analysis and fault solid product element analysis.

3.DESIGN VERIFICATION OF ELECTRIC FIELD DISTRIBUTION OF TYPICAL SOLID INSULATION

PARTS

3.1Support insulator
220kV SF6 gas insulated GIS true type test platform mainly includes the two types of typical solid
insulation parts: support insulation part and pot insulator. Its main function is to realize the electrical
isolation between GIS high potential central tube bus and grounding flange, which has the mechanical
support function. The overall situation of the true type test platform is shown in Figure 5.

Figure 5. The global graph of the GIS true interval

Figure 6. Connecting area between bushing and conductor

4
CISAT 2020 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1634 (2020) 012010 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1634/1/012010

The insulation defects can be artificially set in GIS pipeline of the true type test platform, and the
AC high voltage can be applied for long time to observe decomposition characteristics of SF6 gas and
partial discharge characteristics of insulation defects. Therefore, the solid insulation parts in the
platform are required to maintain the good insulation performance in the process of AC withstand
voltage and long-time pressurization. It is necessary to carry out the three-dimensional electric field
distribution of the true type test platform of GIS under complex operation condition. Figure 6 shows
connection area between the end of GIS gas insulated bushing and the central guide rod. It can be seen
the central guide rod, the metal shield structure of bushing and corona equalizing cover constitute the
complex area. Metal shielding not only shields the electric field of GIS outgoing bushing, but also
shields each other with the central guide rod, forming the low field strength area at the connection
position[5-7]. The electric field intensity on surface of apple type grading ring is shown in Figure 7
under the operation condition of 220kV SF6 GIS true type test platform.

Figure 7. Surface E-field distribution of apple type ring

Figure 8. 3D E-field distribution of supporting insulator

Figure 7 shows that apple type grading ring can effectively shield metal connection area between
the sleeve and the central conductor. Maximum field strength area on surface appears at the chamfer
of the grading hood, with a value of 17.9kV/mm, which is lower than the surface control field strength
of the metal parts under the SF6 atmosphere of 20kV/mm. On the other hand, the solid support
insulator is installed to fix the position and support the weight of the central conductor of GIS pipeline.
The upper end of the support insulator is placed in the apple type grading ring, and lower end reduces
the discharge probability of the apple type grading ring to the low potential flange by designing
umbrella edge and increasing the creepage distance[8-10]. The three-dimensional E-field distribution
of supporting insulator is shown in Figure. 8.

5
CISAT 2020 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1634 (2020) 012010 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1634/1/012010

Figure 9. E-field distribution curve of support insulator

Figure 10. The outer outline of the basin insulator

Figure 11. E-field distribution on surface of basin insulator

Figure 8 shows that maximum field strength of supporting insulator is located at its upper end.
According to distribution curve of electric field on the surface of the supporting insulator in Figure 9,
the maximum field strength is about 8.086kV/mm, field strength at umbrella edge appears jumping
phenomenon, and the voltage of the supporting insulator is basically linearly distributed, so the
insulator can effectively realize the electrical isolation between the high-voltage central conductor and
the grounding flange.

3.2Basin insulator
The actual outer contour structure of pot insulator is shown in Figure 10. According to actual structure,
a three-dimensional model is established to simulate electric field. The calculation results are shown in
Figure 11. From the simulation results, it can be seen that the local field strength concentration area of
typical insulating parts in GIS true type test platform mainly occurs in the contact part between solid
insulating medium and high potential metal, and the position where the maximum field strength
appears has the typical characteristics, that is to say, the maximum field strength along the surface of
pot insulator appears in the contact area between solid insulating parts and high potential[11,12]. And
the maximum field strength of the basin surface is 10.8kV/mm, which is lower than requirement of
20kV/mm control field strength under SF6 gas insulation condition. Therefore, the electric field
simulation calculation shows that the electric field strength at key position of 220kV SF6 GIS true
type test platform can meet electric field design requirements.

6
CISAT 2020 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1634 (2020) 012010 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1634/1/012010

4.COMMISSIONING OF 220KV GIS TRUE TEST PLATFORM

Based on the reasonable design of the central conductor and the basin insulator of 220kV SF6 GIS true
type test platform, AC withstand voltage test is carried out for the GIS true type interval, which
includes circuit breaker, the dis-connector, the arrester, the voltage and the current transformer.

Figure 12. The true GIS interval

As shown in Figure 12, the true type interval of GIS is in the overall situation. In actual voltage
withstand test, grounding switch is in the off state, and the arrester, voltage transformer and the GIS
tube bus are isolated through the isolation switch. When the circuit breaker is on and off, the voltage
withstand test is carried out for the whole GIS true interval. During the test, the resonance frequency f,
the quality factor Q and the current value I of the whole series resonant circuit are focused on. During
the test, two-stage step-up technology is adopted: after power frequency 220V voltage of distribution
transformer is increased to 10kV, voltage is increased to 10QkV through the series resonance
technology[13]. The actual value of power frequency voltage is 212.8V, and the reactance value in the
series resonance circuit is L=720h. The voltage applied to the true type interval of GIS is 20~110kV,
and the step is 10kV.
Through actual withstand voltage test, it is found that when the circuit breaker is closed, resonance
frequency of the whole circuit reaches f1=123.11Hz. When the circuit breaker is open, the resonance
frequency of the circuit reaches f2=136.83Hz. When the series resonance circuit reaches resonance
state, the relationship between reactance value L, the capacitance value C and resonance frequency f is
characterized by formula (2):
C=(2*pi*f)-2L-1 (2)
Substituting values of L and f into formula (2) to calculate that when circuit breaker is closed,
C1=2.3212nF, and when the circuit breaker is open, C2=1.8791nF. In addition, the current IC of the
high voltage side of the excitation transformer and the series reactor is calculated by formula (3),
namely:
Ic= IL=2*pi*f*Cx*Us (3)
Where CX is in nF and Us is in kV.

Figure 13. Relationship between quality factor of resonant circuit and GIS pipeline voltage

7
CISAT 2020 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1634 (2020) 012010 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1634/1/012010

Figure 14. Relationship between transformer current and GIS pipeline voltage
Figure 13 shows that for the actual GIS interval, the GIS pipeline voltage value and loop quality
factor Q basically show a linear relationship, and the Q value changes between 20 and 45. Because
UC/Q = u, where u is the output voltage value of the excitation transformer, it shows that the output
voltage value of excitation transformer is basically constant, and the difference between opening and
closing conditions of the circuit breaker is that the circuit load capacitance value is different. Figure 14
shows that with the increase of GIS pipeline voltage value, current value at the low voltage side of
excitation transformer presents an increasing trend, and there is saturation effect.

5.CONCLUSION
Starting from the structural design of the GIS central bus and solid insulation parts, this paper analyzes
the three-dimensional E-field distribution characteristics of the solid insulation parts, discusses the
commissioning results of GIS true test platform, and draws the following conclusions:
(1)The radius of center conductor of true type test platform is R1=20mm, the radius of shell is
R2=100mm, and the surface field strength of conductor is about 17kV/mm. Therefore, there is high
electrical safety insulation margin between the center conductor of true type test platform and the
grounding flange;
(2) The maximum field strength of the supporting insulator is located at upper end, which is about
value of 8.086kV/mm; maximum field strength of the basin insulator along the surface appears in the
contact area between the solid insulator and the high potential, and the maximum field strength of
basin surface is 10.8kV/mm, which is lower than requirement of 20kV/mm control field strength in
SF6 gas insulation environment;
(3) In true type test platform, voltage value of GIS pipeline and loop quality factor Q basically
show the linear relationship, and the Q value changes between 20 and 45. Because UC/Q = u, where u
is the output voltage value of excitation transformer, it shows that the output voltage value of
excitation transformer basically remains constant. With the increase of GIS pipeline voltage value, the
current value of excitation transformer at the low-voltage side shows increasing trend, and there is
saturation effect.

REFERENCES
[1] Toshiaki rokunohe, Tatsuro kato, Makoto hirose, Testu ishiguro. Development of insulation
technology in compact SF6 gas-filled bushings: development of compact 800kV SF6 gas-filled
bushings [J]. Electrical Engineering in Japan, 2010, 171(1): 19-27.
[2] Hosokawa M, Okumura K, Yamagiwa T, et al. Dielectric performance of improved gas insulated
bushing for UHV GIS[J]. IEEE Transaction on Power Delivery, 1987, 2(2): 359-366.
[3] Xu Jianyuan, Ren Chunwei, Si Binge, Lin Xin. Three dimensional electric field analysis of 40.5kV
SF6 cubicle gas-insulated metal-enclosed switchgear [J]. Proceedings of the CSEE, 2008,
28(15): 136-140.

8
CISAT 2020 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 1634 (2020) 012010 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1634/1/012010

[4] Jascha Lukas Gugat, Matthias C. Krantz, and Martina Gerken. Two-Dimensional Versus Three-
Dimensional Finite-Element Method Simulations of Cantilever Magnetoelectric Sensors[J].
IEEE Transaction on Magnetics, 2013, 49(10): 5287-5293.
[5] Dang Sha-sha, Xu Yang, Zhang Hong-song. ANSYS12.0 finite element analysis of multiphysics
coupling field from start to master [M]. Beijing, China: China Mechanical Press, 2010:254-311.
[6] Sun Yong-heng, Zhang Duo, Meng Wei-dong, Wei Jun-mei. Introduction of 1100kV GIS of
Shenyang high voltage Switchgear Co.L td [J]. High Voltage Apparatus, 2007,43(5)：354-357.
[7] MA Aiqing, YANG Xiu, LU Xinmiao,JIANG Xiuchen. 3D Electric Field Calculation and Its
Inverse Problem Analysis of Disk-type Insulator in GIS[J]. High Voltage Engineering,
2010,36(5): 1217-1221.
[8] XU Jinyuan, WANG Feng, XIAO Fenglliang. Three Dimensional Electric Field Calculation of the
Disk Type Insulator inside of Three Phase in one Tank Type of GIS[J]. High Voltage
Engineering, 2000, 26(1): 11-13.
[9] LIU You-wei，WU Li-yuan，GONG Yan-peng. Investigation on SF6 Decomposition Products in
GIS and Affecting Factors[J]. Power System Technology. 2009,33(5)：59-61.
[10] Yan Xianglian, Wang Chengyu, Ji Yansong, Zhang Zhenqian,et al.Modeling of the relation
between SF6 decomposition products and interior faults in gas insulated equipment[J],
Transactions of China Electrotechnical Society,2015,30(22)：231-238.