Experimental Investigation of Discharge Path Selectivity of a Long Air Gap Containing a Floating Conductor

Live-line maintenance is an effective means to ensure the reliability of the power system. When linemen float between the high-voltage conductors and the ground potential towers, the discharge characteristics of air gaps are significantly affected. In this article, simplified experiments are carried out to simulate the linemen by a floating conductor. The discharge characteristics of air gaps when the floating conductor is in different positions are studied. An experimental platform with a long air gap containing a floating conductor is used to obtain the breakdown voltage and the discharge path of air gaps under a positive switching impulse. The experimental results show that the existence of a floating electrode affects the air gap breakdown voltage and the discharge path. When the transverse displacement is 80 cm, almost all the discharge paths directly connect the high voltage electrode and plane electrode. Furthermore, the influencing factors of discharge path and breakdown voltage are analyzed, and the fitting equations of breakdown voltage and discharge path probability considering spatial position coordinates are established. Finally, the easy breakdown region considering discharge path is proposed, which provides a theoretical reference for quantitative analysis of the path of linemen entering high potential safely, and to improve the working efficiency of live-line maintenance.