2003 Annual Report Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena

Heat Sink Effects in Thermal Stability Tests of ZnO Arresters

Z. Zhengl (zheng@power.ele.utoronto.ca) and S. A. Boggsl' (steven.boggs@ieee.org) 'Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada * Electrical Insulation Research Center, Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT
Abstraet: The effect of heat sinks placed between the ZnO elements of a surge arrester is evaluated in the context of the IEC test for thermal stability.
ZnO conductivity as a function of field and temperature is shown in Figure 2. At high electric field (current), the conductivity is essentially independent of temperature to about 500 C. At low field, conduction is ohmic, but the conductivity is a very strong function of temperature. During the IEC AC over voltage phase, the peaks of the AC voltage extend slightly into nonlinear conduction, while at maximum rated operating voltage, the entire AC waveform is generally in the low field, ohmic region. In both AC phases of the type test, the conductivity and power dissipation increase rapidly with temperature. As can he seen from Figure 2, the low field conductivity and power dissipation increase by roughly an order of magnitude for every 100 C increase in temperature. Thus applying an AC overvoltage or maximum rated operating voltage to elements at elevated temperature has the potential to cause thermal runaway. as the power dissipation in the elements may exceed the heat loss from the surface of the elements. -

Introduction

Time 0-2ms 2 ms- 60 s

60 s 60.002 s

Action
2 ms first power surge

60 s relaxation
2 ms second power surge

60.002 s 60.102 s
60.102 s - 70.102 s

0.1 s relaxation
LO s overvoltage

70.102 s

- 1870 s

30 min normal voltage

Figure 2. Typical electrical conductivity of ZnO as a function of temperature and electric field. Under low field conditions, the conductivity is a very strong function of temperature, while under high field conditions, the conductivity is almost independent of temperature.
Test Time (not Scaled) Figure 1. IEC lype test for stability of ZnO arresters (not to

scale). A short impulse of defined volumetric power dissipation (250 Jlcm ) is applied, then the system is allowed to relax for 1 minute after which a second identical impulse is applied. The system then relaxes for 100 ms after which an AC overvoltage is applied for 10 s followed by maximum rated operating voltage for 30 minutes.

One method for improving thermal stability is to place heat sinks between the elements. This has three beneficial effects, viz., (i) in the short term, such heat sinks absorb heat from the ZnO elements to lower their temperature and reduce power dissipation, (ii) in the longer term, the elements conduct heat from the large ZnO - heat sink interfaces to the heat sink - gas

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interface, thereby increasing heat transfer from the elements to the surrounding gas, and (iii) since the greatest reduction in ZnO temperature occurs near the heat sink surface, this decreases the ZnO conductivity in that region compared to the middle of the ZnO element, which results in the maximum power dissipation occurring near the ZnO - heat sink interface where beat can he removed from the ZnO element most efficiently. These thermal phenomena occur because ZnO has a thermal conductivity of about 20 Wlm-K while common heat sink materials such as AI, have thermal conductivities in the range of 250 W/m-K. ZnO and AI have similar volumetric heat capacities, in the range of 2.5E6 J/m3-K. In our discussion below, we will consider ZnO elements which are 22 mm thick and about 85 mm in diameter. The heat sinks are of variable thickness and of the same diameter as the ZnO elements. The heat sinks are often placed between pairs of elements, so. that each ZnO element is adjacent to only one beat sink, with the other side being another ZnO element. Based on the above thermal conductivity and heat capacity, the thermal diffusivity of ZnO is about 8E-6 mils. Thus heat diffuses 22 mm in ZnO in about 1 minute. The thermal diffusivity. of AI is about an order of magnitude greater so that the heat sinks come to thermal equilibrium within a few seconds for any reasonable thickness. To consider the IEC Type Test of Figure 1 in greater detail, the first short impulse causes adiabatic heating of the ZnO elements. During the one minute relaxation before the next pulse, the ZnO elements and AI beat sinks approach thermal equilibrium. Since we have two ZnO elements for every heat sink and the volumetric heat capacity of the two materials is similar, the heat sinks should absorb roughly one third of the heat dissipated during the surge, and in the process, the temperature rise in the ZnO elements should be reduced by about one thud relative to the temperature immediately after the impulse. The second impulse causes a second, similar temperature rise; however, heat in the ZnO can diffuse only about 1 mm in the 0.1 s before the AC overvoltage is applied. Thus at the time the AC overvoltage is applied, the temperature in the elements is substantially nonuniform with a large temperature gradient in the ZnO adjacent to the heat sinks. During the AC overvoltage phase, the power dissipation is substantial and somewhat nonuniform as a result of the axial temperature gradient in the ZnO elements. During the 10 s of the overvoltage phase, the elements do not come to thermal equilihrium internally or with the AI heat sinks as a result of the short time compared to the diffusion time across the elements and the nonuniform power dissipation within the elements.

The power dissipation is reduced substantially during the maximum rated AC voltage phase, and the elements come close to equilibrium, both axially and radially, with some temperature gradient near the interface with the beat sink as a result of its large thermal conductivity. However, a minute into the maximum rated AC excitation phase, the axial and radial temperature gradients in the ZnO are only a few degrees unless thermal runaway is imminent. Basically, thermal stability is determined by whether the temperature in the ZnO elements after they come to near thermal equilibrium increases or decreases with time. If the elements are in a confined gas space, as is often the case, the temperature of the gas surrounding the elements can increase over time, which can reduce heat transfer from the elements to the gas. This can lead to late thermal runaway, a situation where the ZnO elements start to cool slightly during the normal AC excitation phase after which the ZnO element temperature starts to increase as a result of the increased gas temperature. Obviously, this occurs only at the boundary between stable and unstable.

Modeling
Figure 3 shows the ZnO arrester geometry used in our simulations, which includes the ZnO elements, heat sinks, insulating gas, and the enclosure. The ZnO elements are cooled through convection from the stack surface to the gas and radiation from the stack surface to the enclosure. To simplify the simulations, we assume a fixed uniform beat transfer coefficient (HTC) from the stack surface to the gas. The other effects, such as the radiation heat and the gas temperature rise, are sidered in this simulation by adjusting the =%s? HTC. This enables us to focus on heat sink effects. In other simulations, we have included both radiation and ambient gas temperature. The entire IEC type test is simulated using transient nonlinear finite element analysis with coupled thermal and electric fields [I]. In the computation, we apply voltage to the ZnO stack to calculate the electric field distribution, use the field distribution and known temperature to calculate the electric conductivity, compute the power dissipation from the conductivity and electric field, and then use transient nonlinear finite element Figure3. ZnO analysis to compute a new temperature arrester model distribution from the power dissipaemployed in tion and the known (nonlinear) tberthe present mal properties. computanons.

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AC Overvoltage phase
During the overvoltage phase, the ZnO elements are at substantially elevated temperature (around 200 C at the end of the second impulse) and are subjected tn a large electric field which pushes the ZnO slightly into the region of nonlinear conduction, as seen in Figure 4. The increase in power density with temperature is exponential under these conditions.
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Figure 4. Power density in a ZnO element at 200 C ' during the AC overvoltage phase. The solid line is applied voltage. The dashed line is the power density. The dotted line is the cumulative power dissipation over one cycle. Most of the power dissipation is near the peak voltage as a result of nonlinear conduction in the ZnO. During the overvoltage phase, radial heat transfer is much less than axial transfer to the heat sinks, as immediately after the second impulse and 0.1 s relaxation (without applied voltage), the ZnO is much hotter than the heat sinks. The simulation results indicate that the radial temperature gradient is negligible, so we focus on the axial temperature gradient (Figure 5) and corresponding power dissipation gradient (Figure 6). The on-axis uniform axial temperature and power dissipation as a function of time for no heat sink case are plotted in Figure 7. Figure 5 shows the on-axis axial temperature gradient in ZnO elements as a function of the distance from the heat sink surface at various times during the overvoltage phase and with a HTC of 10 W/m*-K and the heat sink thickness the same as that of ZnO element (22 mm). This case does not result in thermal runaway. The maximum temperature at the center of the ZnO increases less than 1 C and eventually decreases. Through comparison with the on-axis temperature in Figure 7, the case for the same HTC but no heat sinks, we see that the heat sinks are effective in reducing ZnO temperature. Figure 6 shows the axial distribution of the cycle averaged power density with heat sinks during the overvoltage phase. The heat sinks have caused a substantial reduction in the temperature after the second impulse which results much lower power dis-

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Figure 6. On-axis axial power density within a ZnO element as the function of the distance from the heat sink surface for various times during the overvoltage phase. The HTC is I O W/mz-K, and the heat sink thickness is the same as that of ZnO element.

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Figure 7.h-axis uniform temperature and power density with no beat sink as a function of time during the overvoltage phase. The gray line is the power density and the black line is the temperature. The HTC is 10 W/m2-K.

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dissipated near the center of the element as a result of the axial temperature gradient. The average surface and center temperatures during the tests for various heat sink thicknesses are plotted in Figures 10-12. Without a heat sink, the HTC must he increased to 100 WIm2-K to maintain thermal stability (Figure 10). When a heat sink with a thickness of 0.1 times of that of ZnO element is disposed between pairs of ZnO elements, a 10 W1m-K HTC will maintain thermal stability (Figure 11). When the heat sink is as thick as the ZnO element, a 1 Wlm-K HTC maintains thermal stability (Figure 12).

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HTC: h (W/m-K)

Thickness: f-heatsinWf-ZnO

Table 3. Surface temperature 200 s into the IEC type test with various heat sink thickness (1 pu = the thichess of ZnO element, one heat sink is placed between every two ZnO elements) and heat tmnsfer coefficient (HTC), h (W/m-K). f = 0 means no heat sinks employed Numben marked with * are for thermally unstable cases.

The final temperature distribution can be seen from Figure 8 (without heat sink) and 9 (with heat sink).
Without heat sink, the heat flows only radially, and the increased temperature relative to the case for even a thin heat sink results in increased power dissipation, especially on axis of the ZnO element where it is most difficult to remove heat through radial heat transfer. With the heat sink, axial heat flow is greater than radial heat flow so that not only the overall temperature is reduced hut much less power is

Figure 9. Temperature dishibution within a ZnO element at 200 s into the IEC type test with a beat sink of thickness 0.1 pu and a HTC of 10 W/m*-K. I pu thickness is the thickness of the ZnO element. The heat flows axially towards the heat sink and the system remains stable.

Placement of Heat Sinks In previous analyses, one heat sink is place between every two ZnO. Obviously one heat sink between every ZnO element is preferable hut involves more complexity. We have computed the cases of a heat sink between pairs of ZnO elements with heat sink

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thickness equal to the ZnO element thickness as opposed to a half thickness heat sink between every ZOO elements with a heat transfer coefficient of 1 W h - K . As can be seen from Figure 13, the system with heat sinks between ZnO elements is stable while that with heat sinks between pairs of element is not. This results from the much more rapid cooling of the ZnO elements by the heat sinks during the over voltage phase in the former case.
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ais0 improve thermal transfer from the ZnO- to the surrounding gas as a result of their large radial thermal conductivity relative to the ZnO. Finally, heat sinks cause an axial temperature gradient in the ZnO element which reduces power dissipation near the center of the ZnO element by reducing the current density on axis of the element. Thus heat sinks have a beneficial effect on arrester stability.

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Figure IO. Surface and center temperature of a ZnO element during the lEC test with no heat sinks as a function of HTC. The black lines are for surface temperature and the gray lines are for center temperature. The system is thermally unstable for an HTC of 1 and 10 W/m2-K,hut stable for 100 W/m'-K.
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.. Time (s) Figure 12. Surface and center temperamre of ZnO element during the IEC type test with various HTC and beat sinks of various thickness. 1 pu thickness equals the ZnO element thiclmess. The system is thermally unstable for 0.5 pu thickness and 1 W/m2-K HTC, but stable for 0.5 pu thickness with I O W/mz-K HTC and 1 pu thickness with 1 W/mz-K
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Figure 11. Surface and center temperatures of a ZnO element y p e test with heat sinks of 0.1 pu thickness. I during the IEC t pu equals the ZnO element thickness. The black lines are for surface temperature and the gray lines are for central temperature. The system is thermally unstable at I W/m'-K, but stable at I O and 100 W/m2-K.

Conclusion
Heat sinks play an important role in reducing power dissipation and improving heat transfer from ZnO elements. Heat sinks cause a very rapid reduction in ZnO temperature after any sudden power dissipation in the ZnO and thereby lower subsequent power dissipation at normal operating voltage. Heat sinks

Figure 13. Surface and center temperature of a ZnO element duriy the IEC type test with 0.5 pu heat sink thickness and 1 W/m -K HTC. I pu thickness equals the ZnO element thickness. The black lines are for surface temperature and the gray lines are for cennal temperature. The solid lines are for the case when one heat sink is placed between every two ZnO elements. The dotted lines are for the case when half beat sink is placed between every ZnO elements.

References
1.

Zheng, Zhong and Steven Boggs. "Efficient Solution of Transient Nonlinear Field Problems". Annual Report of the IEEE Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric Phenomena, October 2002, Cancun, Quintana Roo, Mexico. pp. 130-133

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