ECTS
4 credits
Component
Faculty of Science
Description
The electrical power transmission industry and the design of high voltage switchgear are confronted with the need to find solutions for insulation constraints. They are looking to improve the reliability and lifetime of their components (cables, insulators, circuit breakers ...). They seek to develop innovative solutions for the transport to reduce the visual pollution of overhead lines such as high voltage direct current (HVDC). For this purpose, it is necessary to characterize and develop new insulators and to take into account environmental constraints.
This course covers the different properties of insulating and conducting materials, such as conductivity, permittivity, dielectric breakdown, etc. It defines the theory of the physical origin of the different phenomena related to these properties.
A part of the course is also devoted to measurement techniques, characterizations and data analysis related to the various properties of dielectrics.
This unit also includes a course on the particularities of high voltage use and applications to high voltage equipment. It will define the functions, characteristics and constraints of this equipment.
A presentation of the HVDC networks is given, it gives the architectures of the converters and the links (unipolar, bipolar), the characteristics and the constraints.
A practical part including measurements and data analysis for dielectric characterization will be performed during a mini project.
Objectives
This teaching unit should enable a student to integrate design offices or research laboratories working in the field of development and characterization of dielectric materials and components.
The objective of this course is that the student, at the end of the course, will know the properties, limits and use of conductive and insulating materials.
The student should be able to select materials for common electrical engineering applications (insulating materials, conductors).
The student must know the physical mechanisms of degradation, understand and predict the modes and mechanisms of failure of materials and must be able to estimate the life of materials. He/she should know the particularities related to the presence of high voltage (charge injection, ionization, breakdown...).
The student will have to know the different high voltage devices used in the transport networks. He/she will have to know their functions, their characteristics and their technological limits in order to be able to make the choice according to a specification.
The student should know the architectures, advantages and disadvantages of high voltage direct current (HVDC) electrical links.
Necessary pre-requisites
The basics of electrostatics: coulomb's law, Gauss' law
Recommended prerequisites*:
Physics of materials at the atomic scale, band theory,
Knowledge control
The control of knowledge will be based on a final exam
Syllabus
1) Electrical properties
Matter - Electric field - Potential - Current - Resistivity
Conductive materials - Insulating materials
Band theory - Charges - Traps - Conduction mechanisms
Polarization - Permittivity
Breakdowns - Mechanisms of breakdowns
Reliability of electrical insulators
2) Methods of measuring the different properties
Characteristic current voltage
Measurement of the breakdown field - Partial discharges
Measurement of space charges
Dielectric spectroscopy
3) The high voltage
The use of insulating materials under strong electric field.
Particularity of high voltage equipment
4) HVDC networks
Topology and particularities related to these networks
Additional information
CM : 33h