Achievements of recent research on electrical discharges and theirpractical applications in Japan

In recent years, many of the researchers in the field of the discharge-aided environment improvement technology have been published, and it is expected that such a tendency will be continued for a considerable length of time in the future, and many fruitful outcomes are anticipated. It has conventionally been believed that that the understanding of the uses of discharge phenomena has mostly been due to experimental discovery, but in the future there will be accumulation of knowledge by the study of the collision process of electrons, atoms, and molecules. This latter approach has been vigorously promoted in Japan with practical use in mind     

Streamer current in a three-electrode system

A study has been conducted on positive streamer discharges in air at atmospheric conditions for a three-electrode system, The electrode system consisted of two parallel planes (one grounded and one supplied with a negative dc voltage) and a small, insulated needle, sticking out from the center of the grounded plane. A triggering positive square impulse voltage of 5 μs duration was applied to the insulated needle and the currents associated with the streamer discharge were measured simultaneously on all three electrodes. During the streamer propagation, the current measured at the needle was the conduction current while the other two were the displacement (or capacitive) currents generated by the movement of charge in the electrode gap. The objective of this study is to identify the three currents and to investigate if simple representations of the streamer can reproduce the displacement currents measured at the plane electrodes. Two models for the streamer were applied: (1) a charged sphere moving in the background field and (2) a channel with a constant voltage gradient extending in the gap. In both models it was assumed that the streamer propagated with a constant velocity, which was estimated from the measurements. The motion of the streamer was simulated by a series of electrostatic calculations, using a field calculation program. Comparison of the measurements with the simulations indicates that the charge of the streamer is confined to a spherical region (i.e. streamer head) and it is increasing continuously during its advancement in the electrode gap. A discussion on advantages and disadvantages with the two investigated models (sphere vs. channel with potential gradient) is conducted, and a possible hybrid model is suggested. In the proposed model, features from both considered streamer representations are included     

Pyroelectric detectors and their applications

The authors review the principles of operation of pyroelectric detectors. The equations for current responsivity, voltage responsivity, noise, noise equivalent power, and detectivity are derived from the fundamental thermodynamic model of a pyroelectric detector. The frequency-dependent current and voltage responsivities are explained. Factors influencing the choice of pyroelectric material for various applications are summarized. The possibilities of various new applications and the developments of pyroelectric detectors are discussed. A laboratory prototype demonstration system has been built using an ELTEC detector type 5192. For a high signal-to-noise ratio, an electric charge integration technique is applied. High-precision operational amplifiers are used for high-quality signal conditioning. The pyroelectric detector consists of two parallel opposed dual lithium tantalate pyroelectric single crystals with a junction FET source follower sealed in a standard TO-5 housing     

Electroconductive polymers and their applications in Japan

In this article, the research and development of electroconductive polymers in Japan are reviewed and the recent developments are described. Examples of the practical applications of electroconductive polymers in the electrical and electronic fields in Japan are mentioned and possible future applications are also suggested     

超级电容器及其在电力系统中的应用

超级电容器作为一种介于普通电容器与化学电池的新型储能元件,具有功率密度高、使用寿命长、工作温度范围宽、免维护、环保安全等优点,在储能领域受到了越来越多的关注。首先介绍了超级电容器的储能原理和特点,对超级电容器单体元件、组件集成技术及产业化等方面的最新研究进展进行了综述,并总结了其在电力系统中的应用研究和发展方向。     

Characteristics of mesospheric sprites in the Hokuriku area and their causative lightning discharges

Mesospheric optical phenomena (including sprites) are becoming an interesting subject from the standpoint of atmosphere–ionosphere coupling. This paper deals with our observation of sprites associated with winter thunderstorms in the Hokuriku area and we show the characteristics of those sprites and their parent lightning discharges. Although the scale of Japanese lightning in winter is very small compared with the MCS (Mesoscale Convective System) for the summer continental lightning, the essential quantities (polarity, charge transfer, and so on) are found to be nearly the same as those for the MCS. However, an additional factor might be required, such as the self‐organization of the lightning. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 153(3): 9–17, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.20178     

磁性离子液体的物性及其影响因素

磁性离子液体作为一种具有磁性的功能化离子液体,近年来受到广泛关注。讨论了常见磁性离子液体的合成与表征方法,对影响磁性离子液体物性参数(如密度、粘度、磁化率、热性能、离子电导率)的有关因素进行了分析,为进一步深入研究磁性离子液体提供参考。     

磁光材料及其在磁光开关中的应用

磁光材料具有种类繁多、应用广泛的特点。随着激光、光纤通信等领域的发展,各类磁光材料如磁光玻璃、磁光薄膜、磁光光子晶体和磁性液体等的发展也极为迅猛,使得应用于全光网络中的磁光开关的实现与应用成为可能。主要介绍各类磁光材料的研究进展及磁光石榴石薄膜在磁光开关中的应用进展。     

Partial discharges at DC voltage: their mechanism, detection and analysis

A concise review is given of the progress made in the field of partial discharges (PD) at DC voltage. Although ample reference will be made to work of other authors in this field, the paper will concentrate on the progress that was made at Delft University of Technology over a period of 14 years in three PhD projects. In the first project, a start was made with the analysis of the physics of partial discharges at DC voltage and different types of PD were characterized based on parameters like time interval between PD and PD magnitude. In a second project, PD analysis was applied to HVDC apparatus and different means of classification of PD at DC voltage were proposed. In the third project, PD analysis was applied to HVDC mass-impregnated cables and test specifications were proposed. In this paper the work performed in the above three Ph.D. projects is summarized with ample reference to papers of other workers in this field. Attention is given to the mechanism of PD at DC voltage as compared to AC voltage and techniques for measurement and analysis of DC PD patterns. Examples of practical application of DC PD testing are given. Finally, some thoughts on future work are presented.     

Streamer propagation in mineral oil in semi-uniform geometry

Presents a study of streamer propagation in transformer oil, with point-plane and semi-uniform geometry. The latter is made of parallel plane electrodes, with a thin triggering point of calibrated size. By reducing the length of the point, it is possible to move progressively from a point-plane geometry to a quasi uniform geometry. The propagation of streamers is impeded by the presence of a metallic plane behind the triggering point, that reduces the field on propagating streamers. The effect varies widely according to the streamer type considered. The propagation of negative and fast positive streamers is nearly quenched, whereas slower filamentary positive streamers (usually responsible for breakdown in oil) are less affected. This shows that many results obtained in point-plane geometry can not be simply extrapolated to the more realistic case of uniform field     

基于分形理论的水中流注放电仿真

水中流注放电的特性及流注发展机理研究对于污水处理、杀菌消毒、水下声源和高压绝缘具有重要的意义。基于分形理论,构建了考虑气泡生长过程的水中流注放电仿真模型,并仿真研究了不同电压幅值和溶液电导率下的放电特性。结果表明,随着外施电压和溶液电导率的增大,通道电荷量和流注发展速度均增大,而放电预击穿延时减小。计算得到的流注发展速度、预击穿延迟时间随水溶液电导率的变化等与已报道的实验相符。     

Fiber-based optical parametric amplifiers and their applications

An applications-oriented review of optical parametric amplifiers in fiber communications is presented. The emphasis is on parametric amplifiers in general and single pumped parametric amplifiers in particular. While a theoretical framework based on highly efficient four-photon mixing is provided, the focus is on the intriguing applications enabled by the parametric gain, such as all-optical signal sampling, time-demultiplexing, pulse generation, and wavelength conversion. As these amplifiers offer high gain and low noise at arbitrary wavelengths with proper fiber design and pump wavelength allocation, they are also candidate enablers to increase overall wavelength-division-multiplexing system capacities similar to the more well-known Raman amplifiers. Similarities and distinctions between Raman and parametric amplifiers are also addressed. Since the first fiber-based parametric amplifier experiments providing net continuous-wave gain in the for the optical fiber communication applications interesting 1.5-μm region were only conducted about two years ago, there is reason to believe that substantial progress may be made in the future, perhaps involving "holey fibers" to further enhance the nonlinearity and thus the gain. This together with the emergence of practical and inexpensive high-power pump lasers may in many cases prove fiber-based parametric amplifiers to be a desired implementation in optical communication systems     

SAW devices and their wireless communications applications

Due to the superior performance of SAW filters, combined with additional features, e.g., impedance transformation, balun functionality, and integration of two or even three filter functions into one package, SAW filters have become the key components in mobile communication and multimedia applications. More cost-effective and miniaturized designs are effectively supported by reducing overall component count and PCB space used     

新型纳米晶软磁合金及其应用(三)

4 其他双相纳米晶软磁合金 4.1 Fe (Co)-Zr-B-(Cu)纳米晶合金 Fe-M-B-(Cu) (M = Zr, Hf 或Nb) 纳米晶合金的商品名称为"NANOPERM",是Suzuki和Makino等人在1990年前后开始开发的[15].最大的特点是具有高饱和磁感应强度,一般可达1.5 T以上,这是由它们较高的Fe含量和相应的微结构所决定的.     

Streamer propagation under impulse voltage in long point-plane oilgaps

A 67 mm point-plane gap immersed in transformer oil, at atmospheric pressure, stressed with a 1/180 μs impulse, has been studied by recording gap current and light emission. Time-resolved images were obtained by use of an image converter camera. Minimum breakdown voltages were twice as high for negative as for positive points. All streamers at these and higher voltages were supersonic, with negative streamer velocities ⩽50 km/s. The speed of the positive streamer gradually increased to 19 km/s with increasing voltage, where it saturated. At high stresses the propagating positive streamer has been observed to switch to a faster mode which propagates with speeds in the 65 to 200 km/s range. Positive streamers were bush shaped to 2× the minimum breakdown voltage, the branching diminishing with increased voltage. Negative streamers were coarsely bush shaped or usually tree shaped. For both polarities, light emission consisted of a background light, with superposed pulses corresponding to 15 ns wide current pulses of up to 10 A. The pulses are caused by very bright, brief re-illuminations of single streamer channels. The tips of positive streamers are considerably more luminous than the channels, indicating that electron multiplication may take place at the tips. A model of the streamers as being plasma filled channels may explain the re-illuminations     

不同湿度下空气的流注放电特性

目前流注放电过程的相关研究主要是针对氮气和空气流注放电过程进行的数值模拟研究。实际的输变电工程间隙的空气中不可避免含有一定量水分子,为研究湿度对空气中的流注放电过程的影响,采用流体模型仿真了干燥空气和分别含80 Pa、400 Pa、1 867 Pa水蒸气的空气的双向流注传播过程,光电离作为源项加在流体模型上。水蒸气对光电离的影响主要有2方面:一是吸收函数;二是发射光强。仿真结果表明:不同空气湿度下正、负流注头部电子数密度均为1.6×1014 cm-3和0.7×1014 cm-3,平均传播速度均约为1.5×108 cm/s,流注头部半径约为0.4 mm;不同空气湿度下,若光电离强度均达到1021 cm-3·s-1量级能够提供足够多的种子电子,则湿度对流注传播特性影响不大,其主要原因是不同湿度下的电子输运系数和反应系数差别很小。     

Streamer propagation and breakdown under ac voltage in very largeoil gaps

This paper presents a study of prebreakdown and breakdown phenomena under ac voltage in mineral oil in very large gaps (⩽80 cm). The investigations presented concern the measurement of breakdown voltages together with the recording of streamers in rod-plane and sphere-plane electrode systems, at different gap sizes. A breakdown mode specific to ac voltage is found, in which `bursts' composed of streamers initiated at each half cycle appear. This mode leads to the lowest breakdown fields recorded under ac. Values of the average stress required for burst or direct breakdown modes are deduced from the experiments. Positive streamers are responsible for breakdown in large gaps: their propagation is easy and does not depend on the gap geometry and on the presence of particles. On the other hand, the propagation of negative streamers is quenched when not very divergent fields are used     

Update on electrically conductive polymers and their applications

Currently, applications of conducting polymers look promising because of the significant advances made in improving the stability and processing characteristics of these materials. The author discusses some of the developments which have taken place and looks at several applications, including power equipment, light emitting diodes and EMI shielding     

Positive Streamer Propagation and Breakdown in Air: the Influence of Humidity

The influence of humidity on streamer propagation at conditions from the threshold for propagation to those for streamer-induced breakdown was investigated in a uniform field in air at atmospheric pressure. Experiments were carried out in a three electrode arrangement consisting of a 12 cm long parallel-plane gap, with an auxiliary needle in the earthed anode. Positive streamers were initiated by applying at the needle electrode a pulse voltage which varied in amplitude. These propagated towards the upper plane electrode which was stressed by a negative dc voltage. Under natural atmospheric conditions, propagation and breakdown probability curves were obtained for several values of absolute humidity in the range between 5 and 22 g/m³. Thus, distributions of the electric field required for streamer propagation and breakdown were obtained and the associated velocity of propagation and time to breakdown were measured. Besides humidity, the amplitude of the voltage used for streamer initiation and the ambient electric field were considered as influencing parameters on streamer properties. Empirical equations are presented expressing the effects of the above parameters on the intrinsic streamer properties. A comparison with previous work in the literature is made and this leads to the conclusion that the influence of humidity on streamer propagation and breakdown can be placed in a sounder quantitative basis.