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J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys., Vol. 9, 1976. Printed in Great Britain. 01976

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Calculating the effect of high temperatures on the onset

voltages of negative discharges

M Abdel-Salam
Electrical Engineering Department, Assiut University, Egypt

Received 15 March 1976

Abstract. A method is proposed for calculating the effect of high temperatures on the
negative-corona onset voltages in air. This method is based on the formulation of the
physical processes of the negative discharge to be self-maintained at high temperatures.
The results computed by this method agree quite well with those measured experi-
mentally.

1. Introduction
In contrast to other aspects of discharge phenomena, relatively little attention has been
given to the effects of high temperatures. Nevertheless, these can be of considerable
importance. For example, in modern EHV gas-blast circuit breakers their exhaust gases
can be at high temperatures and may not be completely deionized, thereby reducing the
flashover voltage between the circuit breaker and adjacent structures (Alston 1968).
Similar considerations also apply to studies of dielectric recovery of air gaps after arc
interruption and to studies of the electrostatic precipitators (White 1963) for cleaning
flue gases at temperatures up to about 200 "C.
To the author's knowledge, only a few attempts (Alston 1958, Powel and Ryan 1972)
were made to study DC discharge characteristics in air at atmospheric pressure and
elevated temperatures.
This paper may be the first approach to compute at atmospheric pressure the onset
voltages of negative discharges in air as influenced by temperatures up to 1100 "C.

2. Influence of temperature on the physics of discharge

With temperature increased above the atmospheric value, the discharge onset voltages
VO in air have been observed (Alston 1958, Powel and Ryan 1972) to increase linearly
with Sd. Here 6 is the air density relative to NTP conditions and dis the gap length. At tem-
peratures above a critical value, thermionic emission takes place from the cathode surface.
The emission causes the increase of Vo with Sd to be less than linear, hence departing
from Paschen's law (Alston 1968).

3. Phenomena in the onset of negative discharge

It has been previously suggested by the author with others (Khalifa et al 1973, Khalifa
and Abdel-Salam 1974a,b) that the negative corona pulse corresponds to one primary

L149
L150 Letter to the Editor

electron avalanche that is accompanied by a series of auxiliary avalanches which develop

in the discharge zone mostly during the life of the primary avalanche.
At the onset, the pulse is mainly produced by the primary avalanche. This avalanche
is initiated with an electron driven by the electric field E outwards from a point of
microroughness on the cathode surface. The number of electrons produced over an
elemental distance Ax which is x cm away from the starting point (figure 1) is calculated
using the relation

ANe(x, T ) Ne(x, T ) [a(x, T )- q (x, 731 Ax (1)

where a(x, T ) and q(x, T ) are respectively the coefficients of ionization by collision and
attachment in air at x and at temperature T.

T
I ri - r o )
emitted
avalanche

L ion space charge

Figure 1. The development of an avalanche in the negative corona.

By ionizing and exciting collisions with the air molecules, more and more electrons,
photons and a cloud of positive ions are produced in the primary avalanche. The
number of photons produced over the distance Ax is [f(T)ANe(x, T ) ] , f ( T ) being the
ratio between the rates of production of photons and electrons along the avalanche.
The cathode surface gets irradiated by only some of the photons, namely

where g ( x ) is a geometrical factor and p ( T ) is the coefficient of photon absorption at

temperature T.
The primary avalanche extends away from the cathode in an ever-decreasing field.
At some distance from the cathode-where the field strength is suitably low-the growth
of the avalanche ends and the electrons get attached to air molecules and form negative
ions.
The photons reaching the cathode surface act for the emission of new electrons to
start the successor avalanche. Using the coefficient yp( T ) of electron emission from the
cathode surface by the photons produced per ionization event in the electron avalanche,
one can express the number of emitted photoelectrons N p during the growth of the
 Letter to the Editor L151

primary avalanche as

Nem=Np= J";-"
yp(T) a(x, T ) Ne(x, T ) g ( x )exp [ - p ( T ) XI dx (24
where Nem is the total number of emitted electrons from the cathode.
At temperatures above the critical value, thermionic emission takes place from the
cathode surface and

Nem=Np+Nth (2b)
where Nth is the contribution participated by thermionic emission taking into account
the Schottky effect. During the growth of the primary avalanche, Nth is given by
Spangenberg (1957).
Nth =AT2 exp [-e Wn(Ec,T)/kT]St (3)
where Wn(Ec,T ) is the net value of cathode work-function at temperature T and cathode
field E,, S the area responsible for thermionic emission, t the time of growth of the
primary avalanche, A a physical constant, e the electronic charge and k Boltzmann's
constant.
When the magnitude of Nem reaches unity (equation (2b)) a successor avalanche can
get launched to start the successor pulse. The discharge is then self-maintained and the
applied voltage is the onset value.

4. Discharge parameters as influenced by temperature

Empirical relations have been developed (Khalifa et aZl973) to fit experimental values of
u/P and g/P (=cuT/PoTo and qT/PoTo) corresponding to E/P=(ET/PoTo), TOand PO
being the absolute temperature in K and pressure at NTP conditions, i.e. T0=293 K and
PO= 760 Torr. The value of the photon absorption coefficient p ( T ) has been expressed
by Loeb (1965) as
p ( T )=0.3 + 5 To/Tcm-1.
The net work-function of the cathode Wn(Ec,T) is dependent upon the cathode
temperature T and its surface field E,. It can be expressed in the form (Spangeberg
1957)
Wn(Ec,T )= WO- A W(&) - p (T - TO)
where W Ois the value of the work-function at room temperature TO. A W(E,) accounts
for the Schottky effect in reducing the work-function WOwith Ec:

A W(E,) = + ($)
p ( T - TO)accounts for the slight variation of work-function with temperature, where /3
is of the order of 10-4 K-1.
The slight change of work function, by 2% ,with temperature has been included in
calculations and resulted in a change of only y % in the total emission Nem. Table 1
reports the z and y values for the rod-to-plane gap tested by Powel and Ryan (1972);
the gap is of 2 cm in length.
L152 Letter to the Editor

Table 1. Participation of the effect of temperature on work-function into the total

emission

950 0.0950 5 1.9 0-7

1000 0*1OOO 5 2.0 2.5
1050 0.1050 5 2.1 6.0

In table 1, WOis taken equal to 5 eV as is known for most metallic cathodes.

The Schottky effect reduced the work-function by only 2 % and this contributed only
about 2.5 % to the emission Nmbecause of the low value 105 V cm-1 of electric field.
N

Fowler (Spangenberg 1957) studied the change of photoemission current I p h with

temperature. He found experimentally that
In Iph/T2=constant.
Consequently, the coefficient of electron emission by photons yp(T )has the same relation-
ship with temperature. At room temperature TO,yp(TO)is considered equal to the value
3 x 10-3 (Khalifa et a1 1973). Hence

The change of yp, based on Fowler's experiment (Spangeberg 1957) is included in

the calculations. Changing yp from 3 x 10-3 to 15 x 10-3 does not decrease the onset
voltage by more than 3 %.

5. Results and conclusions

The discharge onset voltages were computed using an ICL 1905 computer for setups
which has been experimentally tested (Powel and Ryan 1972). The calculated values
agreed quite closely with experiment (figure 2). At onset, the effect of thermionic emission

LO - M - H V -Computed

- 30-
a
0,

r
0
'
+,.
20-
@,
I

C
0

10 -

01 ' ' t ' I I , t I , , I I \

0.3 0.L 0.5 1 2 3 L 10 20
d/T(10-3cm K-')
Figure 2. Negative corona-onset characteristics.
 Letter to the Editor L153

I - I d =O '
5 cm

0.00
ann

Temperature I'C I
Figure 3. Effect of thermionic emission at elevated temperatures.

naturally becomes more pronounced at elevated temperatures (figure 3). This confirms
what was previously suggested (Powel and Ryan 1972).

Acknowledgment

Acknowledgment is made to Professor Dr M Khalifa, Riyadh University for his

interest and valuable discussions.

Appendix 1. The change of the coefficientf with temperature

To a first approximation, the ratiofchanges very slightly with the ratio E/P (i.e. with the
ratio ET/PoTo) as given previously by Loeb (1965) in the form
fz1.75 -0.0001 (ETIPoTo)for ET/PoTo 2 1500 V cm-1 Torr-1
and
fz2.10 - 0*0005(ETIPoTo)for ET/PoTo< 1500 V cm-1 Torr-1.
As is clear from equation (2b), the number of photoemitted electrons NI, depends
upon yp(T ) and notf( T ) .

Appendix 2. Geometry factor

The geometry factor g for photon absorption within the ionization zone around an HV
conductor usually decomposed into its radial and axial components (Khalifa et aZ1973),
so that
g=grad g a r
For the rod-to-plane gap, grad =gax, and hence g=gr%dzwhere

as shown in figure A l ,
132
L154 Letter to the Editor

t
ri-r

Figure Al. Geometry factor.

References

Alston L 1958 Proc. IEE 105-A 549-53

-1968 High Voltage Technology (London: Oxford UP) pp 41-9
Khalifs M and Abdel-Salam M 1914a Proc. IEE Gas Discharge Conf.:IEE Conf.Publ. No. 118 pp 311-4
-1974b IEEE Trans. PAS-93 1963-99
Khalifa M, Abdel-Salam M and Abou-Seada M 1973 IEEE CP-73 161-7
Loeb L B 1965 Electrical Coronas (Berkely: California UP)
Powel C W and Ryan H M 1972 Proc. IEE Gas Discharge Conf.: IEE Conf. Publ. No. 90 pp 285-7
Spangenberg K R 1957 Fundamentals of Electron Devices (New York: McGraw-Hill)
White PI J 1363 Industrial Electrostatic Precipitation (New York: Addison-Wesley)