Model for partial discharges associated with treeing breakdown: III. PD extinction and re-growth of tree

Abstract

When the electrode separation is long or the applied voltage is low, the tree cannot directly grow to the plane electrode, and extinction of partial discharge (PD) with the re-growth of new channels can be observed after a long time. Before PD extinction, the light emission of the PD changes from the whole tree structure to only the region near the needle tip, and the PD pattern also changes from wing-like to turtle-like. These phenomena are considered to be related to the increase of channel conductivity by PDs. Assuming the channel conductivity is higher in the region at tree tips or in the tree channels than near the needle tip, the simulation results coincide with the experimental results.