Electrical breakdown

Electrical breakdown or dielectric breakdown is a long reduction in the resistance of an electrical insulator when the voltage applied across it exceeds the breakdown voltage. This results in the insulator becoming electrically conductive. Electrical breakdown may be a momentary event (as in an electrostatic discharge), or may lead to a discontinuous arc charge if protective devices fail to interrupt the current in a low power circuit.

Under sufficient electrical stress, electrical breakdown can occur within solids, liquids, gases or vacuum. However, the specific breakdown mechanisms are significantly different for each, particularly in different kinds of dielectric medium.

Electrical breakdown is often associated with the failure of solid or liquid insulating materials used inside high voltage transformers or capacitors in the electricity distribution grid, usually resulting in a short circuit or a blown fuse. Electrical breakdown can also occur across the insulators that suspend overhead power lines, within underground power cables, or lines arcing to nearby branches of trees.

Breakdown mechanisms seem to differ in solids, liquids, and gasses. Breakdown is influenced by electrode material, sharp curvature of conductor material (resulting in locally intensified electric fields), the size of the gap between the electrodes, and the density of the material in the gap.

In solid materials (e.g. power cables) a long-time partial discharge typically precedes breakdown, degrading the insulators and metals nearest the voltage gap. Ultimately the partial discharge chars through a channel of carbonized material that conducts current across the gap.

There are several possible mechanisms for breakdown in liquids: bubbles, small impurities, and electrical super-heating have all been proposed. The process of breakdown in liquids seems to be more complicated because of hydrodynamic effects, since additional pressure is exerted on the fluid by the non-linear electrical field strength in the gap between the electrodes.

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