High Voltage Engineering

Md. Alamgir Hossain

Assistant Professor
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Khulna University of Engineering & Technology
Reference Books

1. [C.L._Wadhwa] High Voltage Engineering

2. [E._Kuffel, W. S. Zaengl, J Kuffel] High Voltage
Engineering Fundamentals
3. [M._S._Naidu, V. Kamaraju] High Voltage Engineering
4. [Mazen_Abdel-Salam etc] High Voltage Engineering –
Theory and Practice
5. [R.D._Begamudre] Extra High Voltage A.C. Transmission
Engineering
Voltage Level

•Low ≤ 1kV

Distribution
•Medium 1kV ~ 66kV

•High 100kV ~ 230kV

Transmission
•Extra High 275kV ~ 765kV

•Ultra High ≥1MV

Applications

X- Ray

100 kV

Electron Microscope
Applications

100 kV ~1MV

Electrostatic Precipitator
Applications

Up to 1MV

Insulation Test
High Voltage Generation-DC
Half-wave Rectifier

During one period, T=1/f of the a.c. voltage a charge Q is transferred to

the load RL, which is represented as

The ripple voltage,

 High Voltage Generation-DC
This charge is supplied by the capacitor over the period T when the voltage
changes from Vmax to Vmin over approximately period T neglecting the conduction
period of the diode. Suppose at any time the voltage of the capacitor is V and it
decreases by an amount of dV over the time dt then charge delivered by the
capacitor during this time is
High Voltage Generation-DC
The single phase half-wave rectifier circuits have the following disadvantages:
i. The size of the circuits is very large if high and pure d.c. output voltages are
desired.
ii. The h.t. transformer may get saturated if the amplitude of direct current is
comparable with the nominal alternating current of the transformer.
Cockroft-Walton Voltage Multiplier
H.V. output at no-load
Cockroft-Walton Voltage Multiplier
The steady state potentials at all nodes of the circuit are
sketched for the circuit for zero load conditions. From this it can
be seen, that:
 the potentials at the nodes 1’, 2’,…..n’ are oscillating due to
the voltage oscillation of V(t);
 the potentials at the nodes 1,2...n remain constant with
reference to ground potential;
 the voltages across all capacitors are of d.c. type, the
magnitude of which is 2Vmax across each capacitor stage,
except the capacitor Cn’ which is stressed with Vmax only;
 every rectifierD1, D1’, ....Dn, Dn’ is stressed with 2Vmax or
twice a.c. peak voltage; and
 the h.v. output will reach a maximum voltage of 2nVmax.
Cockroft-Walton Voltage Multiplier
If the generator supplies any load current I, the output voltage
will never reach the value 2nVmax. There are two things to deal
with: the voltage drop ∆V0 and the peak-to-peak ripple 2δV
 Cockroft-Walton Voltage Multiplier
Now let a charge q be transferred to the load per cycle, which is
obviously q=I/f=IT. This charge comes from the smoothing
column, the series connection of C1...Cn. If no charge would be
transferred during T from this stack via D’1..D’n to the oscillating
column, peak-to-peak ripple would merely be
( n/Ci )

Therefore, the total ripple will be

I

Thus the lowest capacitors are most responsible for the ripple

For equal capacitor C1’…….Cn’

Cockroft-Walton Voltage Multiplier

q q Load

q 2q

q 3q

4q

nq
The capacitor Cn will be charged to a voltage
Cockroft-Walton Voltage Multiplier
C’n-1 can only be charged up to a maximum
voltage of

If all the capacitors within the cascade

circuit are equal or

then the voltage drops across the

individual stages are
Cockroft-Walton Voltage Multiplier

I
 Cockroft-Walton Voltage Multiplier
Since the lowest capacitors are most responsible for the total ΔV0
as is the case of the ripple, only a doubling of C’n is convenient,
because this capacitor has to withstand only half the voltage of
the other capacitors; namely Vmax. Therefore, ΔVn decreases by an
amount of 0.5nq/c, which reduces ΔV of every stage by the same
amount, thus n times. Hence,
I

For this case and, n≥4 linear term can be neglected and
therefore approximate the maximum output voltage by
Cockroft-Walton Voltage Multiplier
The optimum number of stages assuming a constant Vmax, I, f and
C can be obtained for maximum value of V0max by differentiating
equation

with respect to n and equating it to zero. That is,

Cockroft-Walton Voltage Multiplier
Using the value of nopt
Cockroft-Walton Voltage Multiplier
Example 2.1. A ten stage Cockraft-Walton circuit has all
capacitors of 0.06µF. The secondary voltage of the supply
transformer is 100kV at a frequency of 150Hz. If the load
current is 1mA, determine (i) voltage regulation (ii) the ripple
(iii) the optimum number of stages for maximum output voltage
(iv) the maximum output voltage.

-
Cockroft-Walton Voltage Multiplier
Cockroft-Walton Voltage Multiplier
 Van de Graff Electrostatic Generator
Robert Jemison Van de Graaff developed belt driven electrostatic
generator in 1931

Can generate
up to some
Mega volt
 Van de Graff Electrostatic Generator
The advantages of the generator are:
 Very high voltages can be easily generated
 Ripple free output
 Precision and flexibility of control

The disadvantages are:

 Low current output
 Limitations on belt velocity due to its tendency for
vibration. The vibrations may make it difficult to have an
accurate grading of electric fields
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