Dielectric characterization of gas mixtures as electrical insulating for high voltage components and appliances

Nowadays a lot of high voltage components are insulated by sulfur hexafluoride gas. This gas is unfortunately one of the main responsibles for the progressive increase of the global temperature: for this reason the sulfur hexafluoride gas should be substituted involving the need to find different gases or gas mixtures more environment-friendly. Furthermore it is well known that sulfur hexafluoride gas used as electrical insulator involves some problems: for example, if the temperature is very low, there is the possibility, due to its thermodynamics characteristics, to reach the dew point causing problems of condensation in some particular points inside the considered components. If this occurs, there is the possibility to have problems related to the excessive concentration of the electrical field. This research work is a part of a research activity focused on the dielectric characterization of gas mixtures in order to investigate the possibility to totally or partially substitute the sulfur hexafluoride gas with other cost-effective gas mixtures as electrical insulator for high voltage components and apparatuses. In order to characterize the here considered different gas mixtures, dielectric strength tests will be performed: the data collected from these tests will be duly analyzed and compared in order to identify the better gas mixtures from a breakdown voltage value point of view.