Hardware for use on Hv systems is designed to be corona free. Recent hardwa
re design activity has been centered around attempts to increase the corona
onset voltage by optimizing the electric field distribution on its surface
. Corona onset, however, is not only a function of the surface electric fie
ld, but also its rate of decay away from the surface, and the temperature a
nd pressure of the gas in which it is immersed. While corona onset is a bet
ter criterion, formulas for predicting it have been validated only for simp
le geometries. The first goal of this work, then, is to validate corona ons
et conditions for more practical electrode geometries, The second goal is t
o determine whether the use of corona onset rather than surface electric fi
eld as an optimization criterion can result in hardware with a measurably h
igher corona onset voltage, To test this idea, two electrodes were designed
, one using electric field optimization and the second using corona onset o
ptimization, The corona onset voltage of each electrode was then measured a
nd the results compared with predicted values. It was found that the measur
ed results compared favorably with the predicted values and that the use of
corona onset optimization can result in a modest but measurable increase i
n corona onset voltage.