Investigating the impact of X-ray irradiation on the SF ₆ gas discharge in GIS equipment

Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) is extensively utilized in power grid systems. However, the existence of numerous photoelectrons in the SF6 gas during X-ray non-destructive testing in ultra-high-voltage (UHV) GIS equipment may induce gas streamer discharge in a strong electric field. To address this issue, in this work, the impact of X-ray irradiation on the SF6 gas discharge in GIS equipment was systematically analyzed. Firstly, one GIS engineering mode with a three-dimensional electric field was established, and a physical GIS model was established by the Geant4 and Garfield++ codes. Secondly, the electrons’ ionization, and multiplication processes in SF6 gas during the X-ray irradiation were studied. Finally, a test platform with an equivalent electric field tube, which had the same intensity as in the GIS equipment, was established to verify the physical GIS model. X-ray beams with 0.1 MeV, 0.16 MeV, 0.3 MeV, and 1.25 MeV energy were used during the test process. From our analysis, it was concluded that X-ray irradiation can cause an electron avalanche in SF6 gas and the intensity of the avalanche is low, which is far away from the appearance of the streamer discharge.