High-voltage engineering

Abstract

High-voltage engineering covers the application, the useful use and proper working of high voltages and high fields. Here we give some introductory examples, i.e., ‘septa’ and ‘kicker’ at the Large Hadron Collider (14 TeV), the Super Proton Synchrotron (450 GeV) and the Proton Synchrotron (26 GeV) accelerators as found at the European Orginization for Nuclear Research (CERN) today. We briefly cover the theoretical foundation (Maxwell equations) and aspects of numerical field simulation methods. Concepts relating to electrical fields, insulation geometry and medium and breakdown are introduced. We discuss ways of generating high voltages with examples of AC sources (50/60 Hz), DC sources, and pulse sources. Insulation and breakdown in gases, liquids, solids and vacuum are presented, including Paschen’s law (breakdown field and streamer breakdown). Applications of the above are discussed, in particular the general application of a transformer. We briefly discuss measurement techniques of partial discharges and loss angle tan( ). The many basic high-voltage engineering technology aspects—high-voltage generation, field calculations, and discharge phenomena—are shown in practical accelerator environments: vacuum feed through (triple points), breakdown field strength in air 10 kV/cm, and challenging calculations for real practical geometries.