Current Applied Physics 10 (2010) 176–180

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Current Applied Physics

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cap

Analysis of thermal and electrical properties of ZnO arrester block

Su-Bong Lee *, Seung-Ju Lee, Bok-Hee Lee
School of Electrical Engineering, Inha University 253, Yonghyun-dong, Nam-Ku, Incheon 402-751, Republic of Korea

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Voltage–current characteristics of ZnO surge arresters are highly dependent on temperature in the low-
Received 14 March 2008 conduction region. ZnO surge arresters experience thermal runaway when the temperature exceeds the
Accepted 27 April 2009 acceptable limit. This phenomenon is associated with the increase of resistive leakage current due to deg-
Available online 24 May 2009
radation. This paper presents the thermal and electrical characteristics of ZnO arrester blocks under the
power frequency AC operating voltages. The leakage currents of ZnO arrester blocks were measured over
PACS: a period of the time. The temperature profiles of ZnO arrester blocks were observed by the infrared cam-
84.70.+p
era. The degradation and the thermal runaway of the ZnO arrester blocks are closely related to the tem-
Keywords:
perature limit which determines the heat generation and dissipation. As the leakage current was 0.5 mA,
ZnO arrester block the amount of heat generation is lower than that of heat dissipation. So temperature of the ZnO arrester
Leakage current blocks was rarely changed. On the other hand, as the leakage current was 0.7 and 1 mA, the amount of
Temperature limit heat generation was greater than that of the heat dissipation. The temperature of ZnO arrester blocks
Heat generation and dissipation gradually increases and the test specimen experiences thermal runaway. At that time the temperature
Degradation located at the center of ZnO arrester blocks string was higher compared to that of ZnO block at both
Thermal runaway edges.
Ó 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction In this research, in order to understand the thermal and electri-

cal properties of a ZnO arrester block against 60 Hz AC voltage
ZnO surge arresters are frequently being used in power trans- changes in leakage current were measured. The temperature distri-
mission and distribution facilities for surge protection of equip- bution appearing on the ZnO arrester blocks was observed using a
ment. As ZnO arrester has an excellent nonlinear resistance forward looking infrared camera. In particular, the correlation be-
property, it does not need serial gaps. Accordingly, its response tween the thermal and electrical properties of a ZnO arrester block
time against transient voltage is remarkably short and it barely was analyzed experimentally. From this analysis, the thermal phe-
shows transient phenomena or following current. On the other nomena resulting from the heat generation and dissipation of the
hand, the removal of the serial gap results in stress not only by ZnO arrester block was interpreted.
lightning surges and switching surges, but also by the power-
frequency voltage (AC voltage) supplied to each side of the ZnO 2. Experimental
arresters [1,2]. In general, the predicting life of a ZnO arrester block
is evaluated by its withstand voltage property due to the increase 2.1. Experimental setup and measurement system
in the temperature and thermal runaway occurs when its life is
closely at an end [3,4]. The nonlinear resistance of a ZnO arrester The sample for experiments was taken from power distribution
block is intensively dependent on the temperature in the low-con- arresters, which had been used at 18 kV and 2.5 kA of the rated
duction region. If the temperature of a ZnO arrester block exceeds voltage and rated discharge current, respectively. Four ZnO arrester
the temperature limit due to surge energy absorption, continuous blocks connected serially in power distribution arresters were ex-
stress from the operating voltage goes up with the leakage current, tracted from the power distribution arrester and their thermal and
increasing the heat generation and finally resulting in thermal run- electric properties were analyzed. Fig. 1 shows the configuration of
away. This kind of thermal runaway is understood as the relation the measurement system. Fig. 1a describes the test voltage gener-
between heat generation and dissipation. The analysis of thermal ator, which produces 60 Hz AC voltage up to 50 kV. To measure the
phenomena becomes a significant factor in predicting life of the applied voltage and the leakage current of the ZnO arrester block, a
ZnO arrester block [5,6]. digital oscilloscope (BW 1 GHz, 5 Gs/s 4channel), a high-voltage
probe (BW 75 MHz, decrement rate 1000, maximum input
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 32 860 7398; fax: +82 32 863 5822. 20 kV), and an active FET probe (BW 1 MHz, decrement rate 1/10,
E-mail address: [email protected] (S.-B. Lee). maximum voltage 15 V) were used. Fig. 1b shows the arrangement

1567-1739/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cap.2009.04.019
 S.-B. Lee et al. / Current Applied Physics 10 (2010) 176–180 177

Fig. 1. Configuration of the experimental set-up. (a) Test voltage generator and measurement circuit, (b) arrangement of ZnO arrester blocks.

of a ZnO arrester block. In the ZnO arrester block used in the exper-
iment, the rated voltage and the rated discharge current were
4.5 kV and 2.5 kA, respectively. Four ZnO arrester blocks, having
30 mm in the diameter and thickness, were installed in a jig. To ob-
serve the thermal profile from each ZnO arrester block, a forward
looking infrared camera (temperature detection range 20 °C to
2000 °C, temperature resolution 0.08 °C, measurement precision:
less than ±2%, wave length 8–14 lm) was used, and the surround-
ings temperature was kept constant at 20 °C. The temperature
distribution signal of each ZnO arrester block was saved in the
memory of the forward looking infrared camera as an average
value.

2.2. Measuring method

Fig. 2. The thermal change curve of the ZnO arrester block.
When the distribution ZnO arrester is connected with the elec-
tric power system and used, DC leakage current flowing through
the distribution ZnO arrester is less than 1 mA. However, the below the temperature limit, t1, the level of heat generation of
temperature of the ZnO arrester block increases and the resistance the ZnO arrester block is lower than the level of heat dissipation.
decreases when the huge surge energy absorption occurs. As a re- The temperature decreases gradually, finally reaching a stable con-
sult, the leakage current goes up and the level of heat generation in dition as shown in curve B. On the contrary, when the temperature
the ZnO arrester block increases sharply. Fig. 2 shows the thermal of the ZnO arrester block reaches a level of higher than the temper-
change curve of the ZnO arrester block. In Fig. 2, in the region ature limit t2, the level of heat generation becomes higher than the
178 S.-B. Lee et al. / Current Applied Physics 10 (2010) 176–180

level of heat dissipation and degradation occurs as shown by curve 1 h and 40 min, according to the amount of leakage current. The
A at the end, ultimately resulting in thermal runaway [6]. experiments were carried out at the initial resistive leakage current
For this reason, experimental investigation into the relationship of 0.5, 0.7 and 1 mA, respectively. When AC voltage corresponding
between the thermal and electrical properties of ZnO arrester to each initial leakage current was applied to the ZnO arrester
blocks was present in this study. 0.5, 0.7, 1 mA of initial leakage block, the thermal profiles of ZnO arrester block were observed.
current flowed continuously under 60 Hz AC voltage was for a per- When AC voltage was applied for 1 h 40 min, ZnO arrester blocks
iod of 1–6 h. At that time, the thermal profile of the ZnO arrester showed a various heat distribution. In particular, arrester blocks
block was observed. The relationship between electrical and ther- 1 and 4 showed the low temperatures. While arrester blocks 2
mal properties of ZnO arrestor block such as leakage current and and 3, which was in the middle, showed the high temperature.
resistance was investigated. These phenomena were due to the fact that the metal electrodes
facilitated the heat dissipation on both end points of the test jig.
3. Results and discussion

3.1. Temperature profile of ZnO arrester blocks

Four ZnO arrester blocks were arranged in series in a test jig.

The temperature profile of each ZnO arrester block was examined
for 1–5 h. Fig. 3 shows the temperature profile of ZnO arrester
blocks, as observed by a forward looking infrared camera after

Fig. 3. The temperature distribution of ZnO arrester blocks (a) 0.5 mA, (b) 0.7 mA, Fig. 4. The temperature distribution of ZnO arrester blocks over a period of time (a)
(c) 1 mA. 0.5 mA, (b) 0.7 mA, (c) 1 mA.
 S.-B. Lee et al. / Current Applied Physics 10 (2010) 176–180 179

It is also considered that the ZnO arrester block at the middle 100 °C after 60 min and exceeded 240 °C after 100 min, respec-
showed a high temperature because the amount of the generated tively. When a ZnO arrester block exceeds the temperature limit,
heat was not transferred. it becomes to thermally unbalance state in which the heat genera-
Fig. 4 shows the temperature profiles of ZnO arrester blocks tion is larger than heat dissipation, and this leads to thermal
over a period of time. When the initial leakage current was runaway.
0.5 mA, the average temperature of the ZnO arrester blocks in- Finally, when the initial leakage current was 0.7 mA, the rising
creased up to 48 °C after 60 min, but it seems to stabilize after tendency of the temperature can be divided into 2 sections. In con-
80 min, and to decrease slowly after the 240 min. This process trast to the case that the initial leakage current was 0.5 mA, the
can be observed by the symptoms that the temperature of the temperature of ZnO blocks was slowly raised before 160 min, but
ZnO arrester block increases constantly and when reaching the it was radically increased after 160 min. Initially, the heat genera-
temperature limit, it remains stable state while the heat generation tion radically increases, the ZnO arrester block reaches the temper-
and dissipation of the ZnO arrester block reach a balance point, as ature limit then the equilibrium state in which the levels of heat
explained in Fig. 2. On the other hand, when the initial leakage cur- generation and dissipation are equal is gradually reached. If the le-
rent was 1 mA, the temperature of ZnO arrester blocks reached vel of heat generation goes up faster, and is thermal runaway will
occur.
Conclusively, it can be confirmed that the phenomena of degra-
dation and thermal runaway of the ZnO arrester block is closely re-
lated to the temperature limit, which determines the heat
generation and dissipation processes. In addition, the degradation
of a ZnO arrester block is considered to be greatly dependent on
both the amount of leakage current and the temperature at the
same time.

3.2. Thermal and electric properties of ZnO arrester block

Generally, the leakage currents which flowing through the ZnO

arrester block under power frequency AC voltage can be divided
into resistive leakage current and capacitive leakage current. At
that time, the leakage current is slightly related to the temperature
rise of the ZnO arrester block and is sensitive to the voltage distri-
bution of the block. But the resistive leakage current generates
joule heat, and thus molecule motion is promoted. The tempera-
ture rise occurs and finally, the life of the ZnO arrester block is
shortened. The temperature rise of ZnO arrester blocks results in
the reduction of the internal resistance of the ZnO arrester block
[7,8].
Fig. 5 shows the waveforms of applied voltage and leakage cur-
rent of the test ZnO arrester block. The leakage current is mainly a
resistive one, and when the resistive leakage current flows through
the ZnO arrester block, the thermal and electrical properties of the
ZnO arrester blocks can be evaluated.
Fig. 6 shows the temperature variations and the properties of
the leakage current for each of the ZnO arrester blocks, as a func-
tion of the applied time of voltage. Thermal properties are shown
as a function of the initial leakage current. Fig. 6 also shows depen-
dence of temperature of ZnO blocks on the applied time of voltage
as a parameter of the initial leakage current. When the heat gener-
ation is greater than the heat dissipation, the temperature rise

Fig. 5. Waveforms of applied voltage and leakage current of the test ZnO arrester
block (a) 0.5 mA, (b) 0.7 mA, (c) 1 mA. Fig. 6. The temperature profile of the tested ZnO arrester block.
180 S.-B. Lee et al. / Current Applied Physics 10 (2010) 176–180

of ZnO arrester blocks with the initial leakage current of 0.5 mA is

slowly decreased with the lapse of time for a period of about 1.5 h,
then it is the value of 33 MX and is constantly maintained. Conse-
quently, it can be concluded that the resistances of ZnO arrester
blocks vary according to the internal temperature change of the
ZnO arrester block.

4. Conclusions

The thermal and electrical properties of ZnO arrester blocks

were experimentally investigated. The results could be summa-
rized as follows.
The degradation and thermal runaway phenomena of ZnO ar-
rester block are closely related to the temperature limit of the
Fig. 7. The resistance variation curves of the test ZnO arrester block.
ZnO arrester block. In the event that the temperature exceeds the
acceptable limit ZnO block occurs thermal runaway, but below
abruptly occurred with the applied time of voltage. The higher the the temperature limit the ZnO arrester block maintains thermal
initial leakage current, the time to thermal runaway is the shorter. equilibrium and stability. In other words, the degradation of the
Thermal runaway occurs when the level of heat generation is lar- ZnO arrester block is dependent on the leakage current and on
ger than the level of heat dissipation by convection current or con- the temperature of the ZnO arrester block. In addition, the resis-
duction. The condition of environment around the experiment site tances of ZnO arrester blocks vary with the internal temperature
has a great influence on the level of heat dissipation. change of the ZnO arrester block.
Fig. 7 shows the resistance variation curves obtained from the
ZnO arrester block as a function of the time. As previously stated, References
the temperature rise of the ZnO arrester block brings about an in-
crease in the resistive leakage current, and the increase of the cur- [1] M. Oyama, I. Ohshima, M. Honda, M. Yamashita, S. Kojima, IEEE Trans. PAS-101
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[3] E.C. Sakushaug, J.S. Kresge, S.A. Miske, IEEE Trans. PAS-96 (1977) 647.
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rester blocks with the initial leakage current of 1 mA is gradually [5] K. Kobayashi, M. Mizuno, T. Aizawa, H. Hayashi, K. Mitani, IEEE Trans. PAS-97
(1978) 1145.
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[6] S. Nishiwaki, H. Kimura, T. Satoh, H. Mizoguchi, S. Yanabu, IEEE Trans. PAS-103
tion of the initial leakage current of 0.7 mA, the resistance of ZnO (1984) 413.
arrester blocks is gradually decreased with the lapse of time until [7] Bok-Hee Lee, Sung-Man Kang, Mater. Sci. Eng. B 119 (2005) 13.
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