A measurement method for atmospheric ion mobilities based on cylindrical electrodes in direct current corona discharge

Ion mobility is one of fundamental parameters to describe the motion of ions in an electric field and a significant quantity to calculate the ionized field and ion current density of ultrahigh-voltage direct current (UHVDC) power lines. This paper presents a measurement method for atmospheric ion mobilities in a DC corona discharge. An apparatus with coaxial cylindrical electrodes is designed and utilized. A vibrating electric field meter is employed to measure the ionized field of the electrode. Experimental results show that under atmospheric conditions, the average positive and negative ion mobilities are 1.76 x 10(-4) and 1.88 x 10(-4)m(2)center dot V-1 center dot s(-1), respectively. The proposed method is compared with previous works of others. The impact of fluctuations of the measured ionized field and ion current density on the results of ion mobilities is also analyzed. (c) 2016 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.