294 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 28, NO.

1, JANUARY 2013

Ion-Flow Field Calculations of AC/DC

Hybrid Transmission Lines
Ueli Straumann, Member, IEEE, and Christian M. Franck, Senior Member, IEEE

Abstract—Large-scale integration of new renewables requires I. INTRODUCTION

substantial increases of transmission capacity on existing transmis-
sion corridors. To limit land use, overhead transmission lines have
been widely built as multicircuit lines. On these, changing one ac
circuit to dc to increase transmission capacity leads to lines with hy-
brid ac/dc towers. Since practically no operational experience with
I N CONTRAST to the so-called hybrid corridors, such as
the Pacific Intertie [1], practically no operational experi-
ence exists to date for hybrid lines with ac and dc transmission
such hybrid lines exists to date, questions such as superimposed ac
and dc fields intensified by corona-generated space charges arise. sharing the same towers (sometimes also referred to as hybrid
In this paper, a method to simulate these ion-flow fields using the towers [2]).
discontinuous Galerkin method is for the first time applied to hy- Especially with the close proximity of ac and dc circuits in
brid towers. Ways to considerably reduce the computational ef- hybrid towers, many potential problems can be identified as
fort of the problem are discussed. The results indicate that hybrid
follows.
lines are feasible in reference to space-charge-related problems.
Shielding the ground is possible at the expense of increased cou- In steady-state operation, the induction of ac currents into
pling between the ac and dc circuits. the dc circuit leads to converter transformer saturation [3]. Vice
versa, dc ions are collected by the ac phases, resulting in a dc
Index Terms—Corona, discontinuous Galerkin method, finite-el-
ement methods, hybrid ac/dc transmission lines, numerical simu- current in the ac circuit. Overvoltages in the dc circuit of a hy-
lation. brid line are larger than those in pure dc lines [4]. In contrast
to the impact of dc or ac operation on insulator performance
(such as the enhanced role of pollution in the case of dc), hardly
NOMENCLATURE anything is known about their performance under the conditions
of a hybrid line [2, Ch. 10]. Ion density and current as well as
the electric field on the ground are considered to be important
Absolute values of the density of positive aspects in the case of HVDC lines [5, Sec. 1] , even though cur-
space charges . rents are small and ions do not seem to be harmful to humans or
Absolute values of the density of negative animal health [5, Sec. IV].
space charges . Regarding current coupling and electric fields and ion cur-
rents onto the ground below hybrid lines, literature is scarce. For
Electric potential .
hybrid line models, measurements of dc components of these
Recombination coefficient . quantities are presented in [2], [6], and [7], showing that the dc
fields on the ground are intensified by the presence of the dc ions
Elementary charge .
beyond the capacitively determined field strengths. This effect
Current density of positive and is widely known for the case of pure dc lines (e.g., in [8]).
negative ions In [9] and [10], calculations to approximately determine the
fields on and ion currents onto the ground below a hybrid line
Mobilities of positive and negative
[9], [10] as well as the dc current component in the ac circuit
ions .
[10] were presented for different hybrid line designs. Arranging
Diffusion coefficient . the ac beneath the dc circuit shields the ground below the line
from electric dc fields and ion currents [2], [9], [10], while ac
Gas velocity (wind velocity) .
electric fields [2] and the trajectories of dc ions [10] do not seem
Domain of the problem space. to be affected by hybrid interactions.
Boundary of . Numerical solutions of the exact ion-field problem by means
of the charge simulation method and the finite-element method
are given in [11]. There, the ion currents onto and fields on the
Manuscript received February 22, 2012; revised May 18, 2012; accepted Au- ground are discussed for an ac/dc hybrid corridor.
gust 15, 2012. Date of publication October 04, 2012; date of current version
Similar numerical calculations of ion-flow fields have been
December 19, 2012. Paper no. TPWRD-00163-2012.
The authors are with the Power Systems and High Voltage Laboratories, widely realized for pure dc lines. According to [12], the ion-flow
ETH Zurich, Zurich 8092, Switzerland (e-mail: u.straumann@bluewin.ch; problem was solved for the first time using the finite-element
cfranck@ethz.ch).
method and without simplification with Deutsch’s assumption
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org. (according to which space charges alter only the magnitude but
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2012.2214793 not the direction of the electric field) by [13]. Other methods to

0885-8977/$31.00 © 2012 IEEE

STRAUMANN AND FRANCK: ION-FLOW FIELD CALCULATIONS OF AC/DC HYBRID TRANSMISSION LINES 295

solve the ion-flow problem of dc lines are conceivable as well, in the future) and the electric potential . These three scalar
such as the charge simulation method [14]. With upwinding re- fields are determined by Poisson’s equation
alized in the finite-element method, Takuma et al. [12] intro-
duced a technique to prevent numerical instabilities. Moreover,
the presence of wind changing the ion-flow field was accounted (1)
for. After [12], further work on the ion-flow field of HVDC lines
used the upwind method, such as [15] and [16]. and the continuity equations for the two space-charge densities
The boundary condition accounting for the corona activity is
highly relevant. The widely used condition fixes surface gradi-
(2)
ents at the corona onset values [10]–[13], [15]–[18]. However,
defining one onset gradient for the entire conductor might be
questionable at times, as corona might not set in homogeneously where is the recombination coefficient
along the entire conductor with fields above that level. In the and is the elementary charge. Note that represents the
case of a low number of protrusions along the conductor, corona “particle” currents (i.e., the electric current density is given by
onset is not homogeneously distributed along the conductor. To ). The current densities are dependent on ion drift
account for that, a semiempirical concept based on partially sat- with the mobilities (chosen to
urated corona is proposed in [5, Ch. 3]. Further, in the case of and ), the gas velocity (i.e., wind)
corona on wet conductors, the field-intensifying water drops are , and the diffusion with coefficient according to
not distributed equally on the upper and lower side of the con-
ductors [19] (i.e., taking effect in different onset gradients over (3)
the circumference of the conductor), with corona not necessarily
starting on the part of the conductors with maximum gradients. As , ion drift here dominates ion diffusion and the
The increased computational effort needed to determine the latter is neglected in the following. Inserting (3) in (2) yields
ion-flow problem for hybrid (towers) lines instead of pure dc
lines lies in the relatively long time required to reach stationary (4)
conditions from start conditions in contrast to the period of the
ac frequency, implying a large number of small timesteps. Equations (1) and (4) govern the ion-flow field in the domain .
In this paper, ion-flow fields of the entire hybrid (tower) lines
are calculated numerically. While the physics of the problem B. Boundaries
are discussed in Section III, the discontinuous Galerkin method,
Clearly, the size of the domain has to be restricted by adding
used to implement the problem in finite-element method soft-
artificial boundaries, limiting the domain laterally and above.
ware, is revisited in Appendix. A validation case is discussed
1) Electric Field: The boundary conditions of the potential
in Section IV. In Section V, simplifications for efficient compu-
at the ground level and on the conductors are the corresponding
tation of more complex designs are discussed on a large-scale
potentials. In the case of the artificial boundaries, reality is ap-
model. These simplifications are applied to actual hybrid line
proximated by a symmetry condition, i.e.,
designs in Section VI. The novelty of this paper is the appli-
cation of the simulation method to hybrid towers, solving the (5)
ion-flow field as a whole and the analysis of mutual current cou-
plings. Moreover, the components of electric fields on and ion where is the unit normal vector.
currents onto the ground are discussed. 2) Ions: Setting the velocity vector
Since the largest ion densities and couplings between the cir-
cuits are to be expected under rain in the absence of wind [8], (6)
the application examples on actual hybrid lines are restricted to
such weather situations. As commonly used in the literature on the upwind (outflow) and downwind (inflow) part of
corona from transmission lines, the problem is investigated for
simple 2-D geometries. Thus, the towers are neglected, and the
line is defined only by the average position of the conductors.
Further, the conductors themselves are simply represented by a
cylinder per subconductor (rather than by a stranded conductor).

are defined (by neglecting the case here and,

II. BIPOLAR ION-FLOW FIELD PROBLEM hence, in the following, the exact distinction of cases is omitted).
On the outflow part , absorption of the ions is imposed
by so-called nonreflecting boundary conditions. On the inflow
A. Domain part, the ion densities are set to zero , except in the
case of injection of ions at the surface of the conductors due to
The unknowns of the ion-flow field problem are the absolute corona. The latter is the case if the field reaches the onset field
values of the space charge densities and (abbreviated by on a conductor; then the ion density is set on that boundary,
296
Fig. 1. Geometry of the validation case. The diameter of the model conductors
is 3.2 mm.
reflecting the corona activity (which prevents the conductor sur-
face gradients from exceeding the corona onset gradients).
III. VALIDATION CASE
As in [11], the calculation method is validated by comparison
with the measured results on the laboratory model hybrid line
presented in [6]. The geometry of the model line is depicted in
Fig. 1.
A. Onset Fields
To produce corona within the range of chosen voltages, pro-
trusions have been fixed on the conductors within spacings of
76.2 mm along the line [6]. According to [6], the applied volt-
ages of 34.8 kV (dc conductor) and 24.6 (ac conductor)
are 120% of the onset voltage.
With the choice of artificial boundaries (limiting the
rectangular domain 2.5 m to the left and right of the line
axis and 2 m above the ground), the onset fields (i.e.,
the fields reached at 1/1.2 times the applied voltages)
are then (dc conductor) and
(ac conductor).
B. Ion (Production) Densities
Great differences in the description of ion production rates
due to corona and its implementation are present in the litera-
ture. Here, an approach of defining the ion density on the
gaseous side of the conductors (i.e., on the boundary, see (14)),
exponentially dependent on the surface gradient
(7)
is chosen, with being the onset field strength and
being a factor for the ac phases or the dc poles
, respectively.
This exponential approach is to ensure that the onset fields
are not exceeded substantially. On the other hand, it prevents
too strict a condition with corona activity only occurring on
the most exposed points on each subconductor. Therefore, as
in most cited references, conductor surface gradients not ex-
ceeding the corona onset gradients are adopted as boundary con-
ditions.
The factor is determined roughly by the space charge den-
sity needed to shield the con-
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 28, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013
Fig. 2. Negative ion density and equipotential lines 1 ms after voltage zero
crossing from positive to negative polarity in the ac phase 9.986 s).
ductor from reaching the prospective gradient ; 10 ms
is an estimate of the order of magnitude of the time of flight
during which the ions shield the conductor. With the exponen-
tial approach, is observed to stay close to , even though
is only approximately determined.
C. Simulated Time Frame
With the ion mobilities, the dimensions of the domain of
2 m and the voltages 30 kV, the typical time of flight of
the ions is roughly
(8)
The initial conditions of the computation are zero potentials and
zero ion densities. In the first second, the system is energized by
a linear ramp to nominal voltage. Based on the estimated time
of flight, the evolvement of the ion-flow field is calculated for
an additional 9 s after reaching nominal voltage.
D. Charge Density Distribution
A qualitative impression of the calculation results is given for
the density of negative ions in Fig. 2.
The single space charge shells are clearly visible, spreading
from the negative dc pole, originating from the oscillating
corona activity of the negative pole due to the capacitive
coupling with the ac phase.
E. Convergence Over Time
Figs. 3 and 4 show the progress of the dc components of the
ion current onto the ground over time as well as the electric
fields. Thus, the convergence from the initial condition to the
stationary values of the energized setup can be seen.
Near the conductors, on the ground just underneath the ac
phase, the time needed to reach stationary conditions is quite
small, as this condition is reached shortly after the first second
(Fig. 3). Farther from the conductors, as for example 2.5 m from
the line axis (0.5 m from the artificial boundary on the right), this
time increases (Fig. 4). Ions must first drift into this region.
For the determination of the relevant quantities close to
the line, the rough estimation of the time frame seems to be
sufficient.
STRAUMANN AND FRANCK: ION-FLOW FIELD CALCULATIONS OF AC/DC HYBRID TRANSMISSION LINES
Fig. 3. DC components of the electric field on and ion current onto the ground
under ac phase.
Fig. 4. DC components of the electric field on and ion current onto the ground
2.5 m to the right of the line axis.
Fig. 5. Measured [6] and simulated (at 10 s) ground-level dc electric-field
strengths relative to the line axis.
Also visible in Figs. 3 and 4 is the elevation of the fields on
the ground due to space charges. The linear rise of the fields
in the first part of the first second is given purely capacitively.
Then, the gradient steepens considerably, as corona and, hence,
the formation of space charge, sets in.
F. Comparison With Measured Values
The computed dc fields on and dc currents onto the ground
are compared to the measured values from Zhao et al. [6] in
Figs. 5 and 6, respectively.
The calculated and measured electric fields (Fig. 5), apart
from a slight translation in the horizontal distance, coincide
fairly well. The ion currents (Fig. 6), in turn, show substantial
deviations in the region of the line center. In the case of nega-
tive ions, the low computed ion current in the range of the line
axis already becomes apparent in Fig. 2, as there are practically
no negative ions in the region under discussion (i.e., near the
line axis). The reason for this behavior is the relatively strict
297
Fig. 6. Measured [6] and simulated (at 10 s) ground-level dc ion current
densities relative to the line axis.
corona onset, with the main corona activity on the part of the
conductors with the highest prospective field strengths (i.e., the
exposed, outer sides of the conductor bundles). However, this
does not explain the weak characteristic of the left maximum
of the ion current densities (to the left of the origin in Fig. 6),
a mismatch between calculation and measurement, which was
already present in [11].
G. Current Coupling
The ac current in the dc pole is (of which
is displacement current and is ion
current).
The dc current in the ac phase (collection of dc ions) results
in . A tempting possibility to reduce computational
effort, if only dc components are of interest, is to simulate the
problem with the voltage of the ac circuit set to zero. Here, how-
ever, this simplification of grounding the ac circuit results in a
dc current in the ac phase of , deviating considerably
from the original from before.
IV. LARGE-SCALE MODEL
In the validation case, considerable differences resulted in the
current couplings between the fully calculated problem and the
simplification of zero ac voltage. On the other hand, simplifica-
tions are desired in the case of simulating actual hybrid lines, as
the computational effort increases considerably otherwise. This
is because
• the time frame needed to reach stationary conditions in-
creases with the size of the domain;
• the number of elements (degrees of freedom) increases
with the size of the domain and the complexity (size and
number of conductor bundles) of the geometry.
Such simplifications are to be studied in large-scale models,
as some part of the errors resulting from simplifications in small-
scale models (such as in the validation case) might be due to the
short time of flight of the ions in these situations. Therefore,
these simplifications are investigated on the large-scale geom-
etry of Fig. 7 in the following text.
The conductors of the model line consist of 1-conductor bun-
dles with diameters of 4.48 cm each.
A. Onset Fields
Here, as in the following text, the situation of rain is consid-
ered, as the strongest ion currents are to be expected in such
298 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 28, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013

Fig. 7. Investigated large-scale model.

Fig. 8. Simulated ground-level dc electric-field strengths at 50 s for the
fully solved problem (ac full) and the case simplified by grounding the ac phase
(ac off).
weather. Therefore, the onset field strength for rain is taken
, according to [5, Ch. 4].
In the case of the ac conductors, the onset field strength under
rain is chosen to be in accordance with [19].
The ion production densities are approximated as in
the validation case. (See (7).)

B. Simulated Time Frame

The artificial boundaries are located 60 m to the right and
left of the line axis, as well as 60 m above. Accordingly, the
dimension of the domain are about 60 m, resulting in a time
frame of about 50 s. As in the validation case,
Fig. 9. Simulated ground-level dc current at 50 s for the fully solved
the line is linearly energized from zero to nominal voltages in 1 problem (ac full) and the case simplified by grounding the ac phase (ac off).
s. Then, the ion-flow field problem is solved for 49 s.

C. Investigated Simplifications
Due to the aforementioned spatial and temporal resolution
that is needed, the simulations are very time-consuming. In ad-
dition to the full computation of the ion-flow fields over the time
frame of 50 s (ac full in the following text), two simplified cases
are thus investigated as well.
• AC off: The ac phase is set to ground potential. By this, the
numerous periods (i.e., 2500 over 50 s) do not have to be
resolved, considerably saving computational effort. With
this, the dc components can be calculated approximately.
Fig. 10. Simulated ground-level ac electric-field strengths for the fully solved
• AC short: The ac off solution is taken as the initial con- problem (ac full , at 50 s) and the simplified (only 1 s fully solved) case (ac
dition and the problem is solved fully for 1 s only (with short, at 51 s).
powering the ac phase up within the first 10 ms). Thus, the
ac components, such as ac current coupling, can be deter-
mined approximately. 2) AC Component: The ac fields on and ion currents onto the
The solutions of these simplified problems are compared with ground are depicted in Figs. 10 and 11, respectively, for the ac
the solution from the fully calculated problem, to verify whether short and ac full cases.
the simplifications are appropriate or not. The differences in Figs. 10 and 11 between the cases ac short
and ac full are relatively small or, in the case of the field strength,
D. Ion Currents onto and Fields on the Ground even barely visible.
1) DC Component: The dc fields on as well as currents onto
E. Current Coupling
the ground are depicted in Figs. 8 and 9, respectively, for the ac
off and ac full cases. 1) DC Current Coupling: The dc current in the ac phase is
Figs. 8 and 9 show that the dc components of the current 2.0 A/m for the ac off case. In the ac full case, the ac compo-
and field are, to a great extent, determined by the ac off case. nent is considerably larger, making it impossible to determine
Generally, the fully calculated values are larger than those of the current’s dc component. This might not only pose a problem
the ac off case. The reason why the ac phase slightly increases for the simulation, but also for the case of an experimental as-
the corona activity of the pole (i.e., the amount of positive ions sessment of this current coupling in a hybrid (model) line.
drifting from the pole) in the ac full case is due to capacitive 2) AC Current Coupling: The ac current in the dc pole is
coupling. given in Table I. As in the case of ac current onto the ground,
STRAUMANN AND FRANCK: ION-FLOW FIELD CALCULATIONS OF AC/DC HYBRID TRANSMISSION LINES 299

Fig. 11. Simulated ground-level ac ion current for the fully solved problem (ac
full , at 50 s) and the simplified (only 1 s fully solved) case (ac short , at
51 s). Fig. 12. Investigated hybrid transmission design configuration 1 [20].

TABLE I
AC CURRENT IN THE DC POLE FOR THE CASE AC FULL (AT 50 s) AND
THE CASE AC SHORT (AT 51 s)

the differences between the fully solved problem (ac full) and
Fig. 13. Investigated hybrid transmission design configuration 2 [20].
the simplified one (ac short) are quite small.
Evidently, the displacement current is more than an order
of magnitude larger than the ion current. The total current is
approximately equal to the displacement current, as the phase
angle between displacement and ion current is about 90 (as the
ion current has its peak in the maximum of the prospective field
strength, the ion current lags the displacement current by about
90 ). Interestingly, the relative contribution of the ion current is
much lower than in the small-scale model. This seems to be an
effect of the lower time of flight of the dc ions in the small-scale
model, resulting in increased corona activity of the dc pole.
Fig. 14. Positive ion density and equipotential lines of configuration 2 (ac off
V. APPLICATION TO HYBRID LINES at 50 s).

As the simplifications ac off and ac short determine the inter-

esting quantities quite reliably, they are applied here to investi-
gate the ion-flow field problem on actual hybrid lines. With the
ac off case, the dc quantities are calculated, while the ac quan-
tities are assessed by the ac short case.
In the following text, the two possible realizations of hybrid
lines (Figs. 12 and 13) presented in [20] are investigated. These
hybrid line designs are based on possible conversions from two
circuit 400-kV ac lines to 500-kV/400-kV dc/ac hybrid lines.
In the conversion to configuration 1 (Fig. 12), dc and ac circuits
are arranged vertically to the left and right of the tower. This re-
sults in larger distances between the circuits compared with the
conversion to configuration 2 (Fig. 13), where the circuits are ar-
ranged horizontally. As in the latter design, the ac circuit being
placed underneath the dc circuit, shielding the ground from dc
ions and fields due to the ac conductors is to be expected.
The conductors of the original ac circuits consist of four con-
ductor bundles with subconductor diameters of 22.4 mm (outer
diameter of Al/St 265/35 conductors). The conversion to the hy-
brid arrangement is expected to be performed using the same
conductors. Thus, the dc conductors consist of 6-conductor bun-
dles with the same subconductor diameter.
Onset field strengths, artificial boundaries, simulated time
frame, and ion production densities are chosen as in the case of
the large-scale model.
An impression of the resulting distribution of positive ions in
configuration 2 is given in Fig. 14. Slightly visible in Fig. 14 is
the structure of the bundles in the ion densities drifting from the
bundles. This results from the (prospectively) elevated fields at
surface of the subconductor on the outer sides of the bundles.
There, the injection of positive ions due to corona is stronger, as
is the case in the validation case model. (See Fig. 2.)
A. Ion Currents Onto and Fields on the Ground
1) DC Component: For both configurations, the (dc) ion
currents onto and electric fields on the ground are depicted in
Figs. 15 and 16, respectively.
Both figures show the effect of the strong shielding of the
ground from the ions by the ac phases in configuration 2. The
ion currents are especially considerably larger in configuration
1. This also implies that the ion densities on the ground are lower
in configuration 2.
300
Fig. 15. Simulated ground-level dc ion current densities at 50 s (for the
case ac off).
Fig. 16. Simulated ground-level dc electric-field strength at 50 s (for the
case ac off).
Fig. 17. Simulated ground-level ac electric-field strengths for the case ac short
(at 51 s).
Interestingly, the same effect as in the validation case (Figs. 2
and 6) can be seen in the ion current density of configuration 1
with the dip close to the line axis (Fig. 15). Also here, this be-
havior is due to the lower corona intensity apart from the points
with highest prospective fields. The dip is the end of the field
lines starting from the sides of the two lower subconductors of
the negative pole (cf. Fig. 12).
2) AC Component: The ac fields on and ion currents onto the
ground are depicted in Figs. 17 and 18, respectively, for the ac
short case.
As mentioned before, the ion densities on the ground are
lower in configuration 2. This is why the ac ion currents onto
the ground are lower in configuration 2 (Fig. 18), even though
the ac fields on the ground are larger than in configuration 1
(Fig. 17).
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 28, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013
Fig. 18. Simulated ground-level ac ion current densities for the case ac short
(at 51 s).
TABLE II
DC CURRENT IN THEAC PHASES (AC OFF AT 50 s).
TABLE III
AC CURRENT IN THE DC POLES (AC SHORT AT 51 s)
For the same reason, as in the case of the dc component (Fig.
15), the ac ion current of configuration 1 shows a pronounced
dip near the line axis (Fig. 18).
The maximum ac component of the electric field on the
ground is larger than 3 kV (Fig. 17), resulting in dis-
placement currents (i.e., angular frequency multiplied by the
dielectric constant and the ac field strength on the ground) of
. As for the total ac current onto the ground, the
displacement current with in maximum clearly
dominates the ion current ac component. Therefore, the ac ion
current is of minor concern from the viewpoint of induced ac
currents, at least for the investigated geometries. Nevertheless,
the quantification of this component seems desirable when
assessing hybrid line geometries.
In agreement with [2], calculations of the ac fields on the
ground in the absence of corona (and, therefore, in the absence
of space charge) show practically identical values as those cal-
culated with corona depicted in Fig. 17. Thus, the ac fields on
the ground can be determined in good approximation by solving
Poisson’s (1) equation only.
B. Current Coupling
1) DC Component: The dc current couplings are listed in
Table II.
The substantial shielding of the ground by the ac phases in the
case of configuration 2 also results in larger current couplings.
2) AC Component: The ac current couplings are listed in
Table III.
STRAUMANN AND FRANCK: ION-FLOW FIELD CALCULATIONS OF AC/DC HYBRID TRANSMISSION LINES 301

As in the case of the dc currents on the ac phases, the ac corresponding tangential component (implying less dry-
currents on the dc poles are larger for configuration 2, com- band arcing).
pared with the currents from configuration 1. In contrast, with
and for config- APPENDIX
uration 1 and 2, respectively, the dc currents from the dc poles STABILIZATION AND IMPLEMENTING BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
are smaller in configuration 2. As (4) is prone to instabilities, the upstream (or upwind)
method is used. This stabilization technique as well as the
VI. CONCLUSION boundary conditions for the ion densities are implemented,
using the discontinuous Galerkin method [21].
A. Calculation Method Discontinuous Galerkin Method: Let be a decomposi-
• The approximation of the time frame needed to reach sta- tion of into triangles . Let be the finite-element space of
tionary conditions seems to be sufficient for the regions of discontinuous piecewise polynomial functions
interest, that is, close to the line (while farther from the line,
where ion densities and fields are low, longer time frames (9)
are needed to asymptotically reach the stationary case).
where is the space of polynomials of degree .
• The combination of simplified calculations (setting the ac
In the weak formulation (i.e., multiplying by a test function
voltage to zero; computing only a limited time frame with
and integrating by parts), (4) becomes
the actual ac voltage) seems to be sufficient to determine
the desired quantities, such as dc and ac current coupling
or electric fields on and ion currents onto the ground. Con-
sidering uncertainties, such as the onset surface gradients,
the errors by the simplifications seem to be of minor con- (10)
cern.
• The ac fields on the ground are practically identical to those with unit normal vector pointing outwards from the corre-
calculated in the absence of corona (i.e., without space sponding triangle .
charge). Thus, the ac fields on the ground can be deter- Within the FEM, is determined in order to satisfy
mined in good approximation by solving Poisson’s equa- (10). Thus, and are not well defined on the interior el-
tion only. ement edges (but jump from one side to the other across the
edges).
B. Hybrid Line Design Upstreaming: With being the set of edges of the tri-
• Shielding of the ground from ion currents and dc fields is angles, the upwind and downwind value of a func-
possible at the expense of larger current coupling between tion (or, analogously, a vector with corresponding components)
the ac and dc circuits. on is defined by
• Depending on whether shielding of the ground from ion
currents and electric dc fields or reducing the current cou- if
(11)
pling between dc and ac circuits is decisive, one or the other if
presented configurations seems to point in the direction to-
ward realization of hybrid lines. Setting , the second term in (10) can be written
• However, as for the amplitudes of current coupling as well as
as ions and fields near the ground, hybrid lines seem to be
technically feasible.

VII. OUTLOOK
• With the simulation method, possible line designs can be
investigated in the future. Practical considerations, such
as the maintenance of lines or insulation coordination, are
to be included for a complete assessment of hybrid line (12)
designs.
• The presented method of computing ion-flow fields could
The stabilizing scheme of upstreaming is realized by re-
also be used to address the open question of the perfor-
placing the downwind part by the upwind value in the first term
mance of ac insulators in a hybrid environment. Presently,
(I) in (12)
it can be stated that the (dc) ion densities in the surround-
ings of the ac conductors are comparable to those close to (13)
dc insulators, implying increased pollution (as in the case
of dc insulators). On the other hand, the dc fields are con- Implementing Boundary Conditions: Nonreflecting
siderably lower, specifically the normal component on the boundary conditions [22] are already implemented in the
insulator surface (implying lower pollution) as well as the second term (II) in (12), as the exterior flux contribution in
302
the edge integral along the nonreflecting boundary (outflow) is
eliminated.
In the third term (III) of (12), the boundary condition (inflow)
is implemented by setting this term to zero or, in case of corona
on the conductors, to the corresponding density , i.e.,
if in corona
(14)
else.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank B. Straumann for the English
corrections in this paper.
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Ueli Straumann (M’10–SM’12) was born in Aarau,
Switzerland, in 1975. He received the Dr. Sc.degree
from ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, in 2007.
Since then, he has been Senior Assistant and Lec-
turer in the High Voltage Laboratory, ETH Zurich.
His research interests include corona of overhead
lines as well as the description of ion-flow fields and
gaseous insulation in general.
Christian M. Franck (M’04–SM’11) received the
Ph.D. degree in physics from the University of Greif-
swald, Greifswald, Germany, in 2003.
He was with the Swiss corporate research center
of ABB, Dättwil, Switzerland, from 2003 to 2009 as
a Scientist and Group Leader for gas circuit breakers
and high-voltage systems. Currently, he is an Assis-
tant Professor of High Voltage Technology, Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich,
Switzerland.