# Techniques to Generate High Voltages

3489 words (14 pages) Essay in Mechanics

23/09/19 Mechanics Reference this

Disclaimer: This work has been submitted by a student. This is not an example of the work produced by our Essay Writing Service. You can view samples of our professional work here.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UK Essays.

## 1         Introduction

The aim of this report is to implement various techniques used to generate high voltages for many applications used around the world. This report further analysis the importance of health and safety when dealing with high voltage levels in laboratories or at work. Furthermore, by the end of this report students should have a thorough understanding of how different waveforms are implemented from different high voltage generating methods.

Objectives

• Understanding HVAC ,HVDC
• Impulse generation
• Healthy and safety related to high voltage
• Importance of their generated waveforms
• Standards on generation

## 2         Some Examples of High Voltage Applications

High voltages are used in many applications around the world such as:

• Medical imaging
• Electrical power distributions
• High-power amplifier vacuum tubes
• X-rays
• Testing laboratories and facilities

## 3         Different Methods Of Generating High Voltage

### 3.1      Generating High Impulse Voltage

• Single stage generator
• Multistage-Marx generator

A Marx generator is used to generate high voltages from a low DC supply which can be used in applications such as an x-rays and large power transformers.

### 3.2      Operation of the Marx generator

By analysing figure 1 it can be seen that all capacitors are charged up in parallel to

$\mathit{Vin}$

via the resistors just like an RC circuit charging process. The value of the resistors should typically be reasonably high due to the presence of high voltage. Once the first capacitor is fully charged to Vin the first spark gap breaks down, the voltage on the next stage increases then the spark gap breaks down and passes on to the next stage (like a ladder). Once reached the last stage the low impedance of the ionised air in the sparks effectively links all the capacitors and discharges them in series. By multiplying the supply voltage by the total number of capacitors this results to one large spark at the output of the Marx generator.

### 3.3      Impulse waveform

Figure 2 shows a standard impulse waveform. Impulse tests are carried out on Power Systems Components to ensure that components of high voltage systems are adequately resistant to lightning strikes and other high voltage transients produced by switching events and system faults. [3] By definition an impulse is a unidirectional current or voltage swiftly rising to its peak value.

### 3.4      Generating High DC Voltage

• Full and half wave rectifiers
• Doubler
• Cockcroft-Walton

### 3.5      Voltage doubler and Cockcroft-Walton

A voltage doubler works in a very simple manner which consists of semiconductor diodes and capacitor. These capacitors are charged in order to give double the input voltage on the output.

AC input

Positive rectification

Output: 2*VIN

Negative rectification

Figure 3 illustrates a voltage doubler, multiplying the input voltage by 2 due to the arrangement of the circuit. By analysing this configuration it can be seen that when current flows through D1 (forward biased) and charges up the capacitor C1 when the input voltage is positive, however when input voltage is negative current flows through D2 (reverse biased) charging up the second capacitor C2 and the output voltage as the name implies ‘multiplier’ is doubled at the output due to the capacitors which are implemented in series. The output voltage is then a DC waveform converted from the AC input voltage.

If there is a load on the output, it can be said:

$\mathit{VL}<2*\mathit{Vin}$

$\mathit{VC}1+\mathit{Vc}2=2*\mathit{Vin}$

### 3.6      DC waveform

As shown in figure 4, the mean value in a DC voltage is defined between the highest and lowest level in a given period, where the duration period depends on the generating system. [6] This DC waveform is obtained from a voltage doublers output, by means of rectification. This process uses diodes, and capacitors in series at the output to double the voltage. The diodes are arranged in a way, so they can conduct at different times during each half cycle while the other is reversed biased resulting to a DC output wave form as shown in figure 4. Also, the capacitors at the output help to smoothen the DC line.

### 3.7      Ripple voltage

As shown in figure 4 The difference between

$\mathit{Vin}$

and

$\mathit{Vpk}$

is the

$∆V$

which is referred to as ripple voltage, this is due to the incomplete suppression of the AC waveform after rectification within the system. [7] The capacitors charging and discharging process has an effect on this ripple voltage. This could be reduced by increasing the Capacitance value or the frequency.

The equation given for ripple voltage is:

$V=\frac{I*n}{2\mathit{fc}}\left(1+n\right)$

### 3.8      Cockcroft-Walton

In order to obtain very high voltages at the output, the voltage doubler technique is cascaded on top of each other which becomes the Cockcroft-Walton multiplier. Where it enables you to add n amount of stages required to get the desire output voltage, however there is a limit. As illustrated in figure 5 this design is a three-stage multiplier (n=3). For example, in this figure the voltage is 3 times the voltage at stage 1 and it does not necessarily double the voltage but multiplies.

n can be found by using the equation:

$n=\sqrt{\frac{{V}_{\mathit{in}}*\mathit{fC}}{I}}$

Points A, B and C are all AC waveform.

Points F, G and H are all DC outputs after rectification.

When voltage is first induced, and its polarity is

${\mathit{–Vpk}}$

C1 is charged from D1 (forward biased), once polarity has switched the current from C1 flows through D2 and not D1(reverse biased), charging up C2. The voltage at point F is than

${2}{*}{\mathit{Vin}}$

relative to ground. When the polarity switches again current flows from C2 through D3 charging up C3. When it changes once more current from C3 goes through D4 charging up C4, now point G is

${4}{*}{\mathit{vin}}$

. This process happens once more as is 3 stages, once finished point H will be

${6}{*}{\mathit{Vin}}$

relative to ground.

DC output

This is the input and output waveform at each stage which shows it is multiplying the input by 2 at stage one then the waveform shifts again by two and then by another 2. Resulting to

${6}{*}{\mathit{Vmax}}$

(the reference point keeps shifting).

## 4         High Voltage Levels

Table 1[voltage levels]

## 5         Generating High AC Voltage

• Tesla coil
• Resonant transformer

If voltages more than 400kV are required than it is essential to cascade two or more transformers in order to get the desired AC output voltage. By analysing figure 4 it can be seen that at the initial stage the transformers primary winding which is connected to a low voltage AC source has the same amount of turns as and tertiary winding. This is than fed to the primary transformer of the second stage. During the second stage the transformers secondary winding is connected in series with the secondary winding of the first stage transformer. Resulting to 2*V across the secondary winding at stage 2. For stage three the same process repeats resulting to 3*V at the output.

Tertiary winding

High voltage on the secondary

Low AC voltage

High AC voltages are frequently used in transmitting and distribution lines due to being relatively easier to transport over long distances, at high voltages less energy is lost in the transmission. They are very useful as the voltage levels can be stepped up or down by using transformers in the means of induction. The sinusoidal waveform for HVAC is given by the equation:

$V\left(t\right)=\mathit{Vpeak}*\mathit{sin}\left(2\mathit{\pi f}\left(t\right)+\varnothing \right)$

• $\mathit{Vpeak}$

is the amplitude of the peak voltage

• Sin indicates that the waveform will be a sinusoidal
• The frequency of the waveform is defined as

$f=\frac{1}{t}$
• $2f$

which is equal to

$\omega$

defines how many radians per second the phasor will move.

• represents the phase of the sinewave which is measured in degrees

The root means squared value which is an important parameter of a sinusoidal wave is given by:

$\mathit{Vrms}=\frac{\mathit{Vpk}}{\sqrt{2}}$

• Requires space for installation and it can be costly

• It can be available indoors and outdoors
• For three units, three phase connection in star or delta is possible
• Better cooling [10]

## 6         Health and safety when dealing with High voltages

When dealing with high voltage levels extra precautions must be considered such as:

• The correct PPE should be worn when present in high voltage labs or vising high voltage sites such as Bolney super-grid switching station.
• If the controls system faults, the system response may lead to a dangerous working environment if it is closely coupled with human interaction. To prevent this from happening the generators must have an external emergency shut down switch which can switch off the high voltage source
• All labs must be proper insulated to stop the high voltage from reaching out
• High voltage capacitor must be shorted out to earth
• The operator must watch out for short circuiting and live wires to avoid electrocutions
• A proper risk assessment must be issued by a senior person in charge
• Specified distance to the high voltage equipment should be monitored, all objects to ground potential must be placed away from all exposed high voltage points at a minimum distance of 1 inch for every 7500 volts [11]
• All cables must be tucked well away to avoid trips
• All HVDC Conductors shall be considered to be operating at their nominal voltage regardless of DC Operating Configuration [11]
• All high-voltage generating equipment should have an indicator which signals that the high-voltage output is enabled [11]
• All high voltage equipment must have an interlock [11]
• Safety inspection on the equipment

## 7         Standards for high voltage generators

Table 2[high-voltage standards] [12]

Table 2 shows the standard requirements used for high voltage generators, this is designed so the operator can analyse to see whether the test equipment used can handle the operation standards which is the recommended high voltage standards for testing as illustrated above.

## 8         Conclusions

With reference to the aims and objectives to this report, the following criteria’s were achieved:

• Three methods of implementing high voltages were analysed. Using DC, AC and impulse to generate high voltages for different purposes and applications.
• When dealing with high voltages it is important to understand the health and safety aspects and further precautions must be taken, as this is an important feature when dealing with high voltage applications, failure to do so it can result to serious injuries and death.
• Furthermore, the significance of the given waveforms for various generating methods along with their standards were described and analysed.

## 9         References

 [1] J. Kronjaeger, “kronjaeger,” [Online]. Available: http://www.kronjaeger.com/hv/hv/src/marx/index.html. [Accessed 3 11 2018]. [2] J. Abdullah, “slideshare,” [Online]. Available: https://www.slideshare.net/jamilabdullah10/generating-of-high-alternating-voltage. [Accessed 3 11 2018]. [3] D. S. Walters. [Online]. Available: https://studentcentral.brighton.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/pid-3281091-dt-content-rid-6179013_1/courses/EO632_2018/9%20HVDC%20Generation.pdf. [Accessed 4 11 2018]. [4] D. Hadjibashi, “voltage doubler,” Brighton, 2018. [5] Peter, “quora,” [Online]. Available: https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-calculate-the-maximum-constant-load-current-for-a-half-wave-rectifier. [Accessed 3 11 2018]. [6] Ryan.H, “High voltage Engineering and testing,” IET, London, 2013. [7] Ryder.J.D, “Electronic Fundamentals & Aplications,” 1970. [8] A. Kumar, “top10electrical,” [Online]. Available: http://top10electrical.blogspot.com/2014/11/cascaded-transformers-method-for.html. [Accessed 5 11 2018]. [9] “electronics-tutorials,” [Online]. Available: https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/waveforms/waveforms.html. [Accessed 6 11 2018]. [10] P.Vivek, EEE, [Online]. Available: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/75e7/45648e10c2afe879b2f942f0d7b4380cf466.pdf. [Accessed 6 11 2018]. [11] IEEE, “IEEE recomended practices for safety in High voltage & High-power testing,” [Online]. Available: https://studentcentral.brighton.ac.uk/bbcswebdav/pid-3264738-dt-content-rid-6137036_1/courses/EO632_2018/IEEE_Recommended_Practices.pdf. [Accessed 6 11 2018]. [12] 2010. [Online]. Available: https://ia800409.us.archive.org/18/items/gov.in.is.iec.60071.1.2006/is.iec.60071.1.2006.pdf. [Accessed 6 11 2018].

## 10  Appendix

If you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!

## Related Services

View all

### DMCA / Removal Request

If you are the original writer of this essay and no longer wish to have the essay published on the UK Essays website then please:

Prices from
###### £124

Undergraduate 2:2 • 1000 words • 7 day delivery

Delivered on-time or your money back

(188 Reviews)