Free conductive particles in a gas-insulated metal-enclosed system produce partial discharges during movement, resulting in insulator flashover and insulation failures. This study focuses on the partial discharge property of free conductive particles under DC and AC voltages. The relationship between the micro-discharge property and the intrinsic properties of the particles was obtained based on experimental tests. The results show that under DC conditions, the local discharge property varies linearly with particle size and density. The discharge probability of particles in SF6 is significantly reduced compared with that in air, while the discharge magnitude rapidly increases if the lift voltage exceeds a certain value. Under AC conditions, the partial discharge generated by the particle becomes less random, and the amplitude and phase angle of the discharge are not significantly related. As the size of the electrode decreases, the partial discharge current generated by the particles on the surface of the electrode with an uneven electric field increases significantly. This research provides a basis for the optimization of withstand voltage test method and its applications.

There are many defects in gas-insulated metal-enclosed switchgear (GIS) and gas-insulated transmission lines (GIL) that may cause accidents, such as floating potentials, metal particles, air gaps, and cracks in support insulators. Nevertheless, to-this-date, there is no effective method to recognize them to adjust their operation status. Accordingly, this study compared three typical defect models to explore the partial discharge process, and three typical experimental models were established to identify the characteristic parameters of acoustic and electrical information in the development of defects. The research study shows that that as the voltage increases, the partial discharge of free-metal-particle defects and air-gap defects obtained by the pulse-current method increase gradually. A sudden increase also occurred in the partial discharge of the floating potential defect. The discharge amount of free conductive particles obtained by an ultrahigh-frequency detection method was distributed symmetrically on both sides of the applied voltage peak, and the other two defects were on one side of the peak and yielded an obvious phase difference. The particle collision signal obtained by the ultrasonic method was obvious, but had no obvious phase relationship with the applied voltage. However, the obtained floating potential defect information had obvious phase differences, and the ultrasonic method was not sensitive to air-gap defects. The three typical defects can be identified by the combined method more accurately; this provides a theoretical basis and data support for GIS and GIS voltage tests, detection technologies, and online monitoring methods.

The restrike of vacuum circuit breaker during the breaking process causes overvoltage and intensifies the insulation deterioration of high‐voltage equipment. To solve this problem, the vacuum breaker aging test method and the restrike characteristics are researched. A withstand voltage test platform of 40.5‐kV vacuum circuit breaker was established to obtain the effects of the contact spacing and loop and inrush currents of vacuum circuit breaker on the number of restrike, the wavefront steepness of the breakdown voltage, and the breakdown duration. The number of restrike during the breaking of vacuum circuit breaker decreased and the duration of the repeated‐breakdown arc increased with the increased contact spacing of vacuum circuit breaker. As the loop current of the test system increased, the number of restrike during the breaking of vacuum circuit breaker, the wavefront steepness of the breakdown voltage, and the duration of the restrike arc increased. As the inrush current amplitude increased during the closing of vacuum circuit breaker, the number of restrike and the duration of the repeated‐breakdown arc during the breaking of vacuum circuit breaker increased. The results provide a theoretical basis and data support for the preventive test of 40.5‐kV vacuum circuit breaker and the optimization of the withstand voltage test.