Electrification by liquid dielectric flow

Abstract

For lack of basic information and engineering guidelines, common practice in the design and operation of liquid-cooled power distribution equipment allows for applied electrical potentials, but not for those generated inadvertently by the flow of the semi-insulating coolant. The electric field generation initiated by the turbulent flow of semi-insulating liquids through insulating tubes is the subject of a recent study [1] because of its practical importance where the coolant must be conveyed between metallic elements constrained to different potentials. A limiting case from that study is summarized here to illustrate how to integrate into a self-consistent model the four basic processes of electrification: charge generation, transport, accumulation and leakage.