Discharges in plain air has been a subject of research and consideration of small gap was confined mainly to vacuum. Few researches have been done on a.c, d.c and ready on impulse voltage. In this consideration a sharply non-uniform field (needle-plane) electrode arrangement was used to verify charge distribution on impulse breakdown for small air gap distance when different barrier conditions were introduced. The air gap distance was maintained at 10cm and various test were carried out on, (i) Barrier position for optimum breakdown voltage. (ii) Holes of different diameters and position. Due to the conditions introduced in the barrier, the breakdown voltage was affected in various ways.
