IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 21, NO.

2, APRIL 2006

959

Numerical Analysis of Electric-Field Distribution

Around Composite Insulator and Head of
Transmission Tower
Bo Zhang, Shejiao Han, Jinliang He, Senior Member, IEEE, Rong Zeng, Member, IEEE, and Puxuan Zhu

AbstractIn this paper, the electric-field distribution around

the composite insulators and the heads of transmission towers is
calculated by a model coupling the indirect boundary-element
method to the moment method. The heterogeneous media, such as
the composite insulators and the filament metal structures such as
the transmission towers and the transmission lines, are considered
altogether. The method can take into account not only the permittivity but also the resistivity of the media by using the complex
resistivity in the frequency domain. The electric-field distribution
around a three-phase 330-kV transmission tower with composite
insulators was analyzed. The electric fields on the surfaces of the
grading rings and the phase subconductors and at the ends of
the composite insulators are analyzed. Both the method and the
results are useful for the design of high-voltage transmission lines.
Index TermsBoundary-element methods (BEMs), electric
fields, insulators, moment methods, transmission lines.

I. INTRODUCTION

HE calculation of the electric-field distribution is very

important for the design of high-voltage transmission
lines. High electric-field strength can cause strong corona
around the conductor surface, audible noise, radio interference, partial discharge, premature aging of insulation, and
other electromagnetic (EM) pollution. These days, composite
insulators are being increasingly used to replace porcelain
and glass insulators because of the advantages obtained from
good performance against pollution, lower weight, reduced
installation, and maintenance cost. At the same time, compact
transmission lines are also being widely used which have a lot
of advantages over the traditional transmission lines. However,
the composite insulators are very sensitive to the magnitude of
the electric-field strength and may be eroded when subjected to
sustained electrical discharges [1], [2]. Manufacturers provide
special grading devices with the high-voltage (HV) insulators
to reduce the electric-field strength at the insulator ends. Because the phase spacing of the compact transmission lines is
reduced significantly, the towers, the transmission lines, and the
ground wires will greatly affect the electric field in the vicinity
around the insulators. Thus, it is necessary to investigate the

Manuscript received November 22, 2004; revised March 22, 2005. This
work was supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation. Paper no.
TPWRD-00554-2004.
The authors are with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China (e-mail: shizbcn@tsinghua.edu.cn;
hansj@tsinghua.edu.cn; hejl@tsinghua.edu.cn; zengrong@tsinghua.edu.cn;
zpxddz@sohu.com).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2005.859293

electric-field distribution around the composite insulators and

the heads of transmission towers.
Although the electric-field distribution can be evaluated
strictly via laboratory experiment on full-size equipment, such
testing can be very time consuming. What is more, new types
of towers and insulators need a new experiment. The efficient
way to evaluate the electric-field distribution is by numerical
calculation. However, on the transmission towers, there are not
only heterogeneous media, such as the composite insulators,
but also the filament metal structures, such as the transmission
towers and the transmission lines. It is very difficult to obtain
the electric-field distribution by numerical calculation. Many
papers have calculated the electric field around the transmission
lines or insulators, but they rarely took care of the transmission
lines, the towers, and the insulators altogether [3][7]. The
electric field and potential distribution along nonceramic insulators considering the effects of conductors and transmission
towers were calculated by using the boundary-element method
(BEM) in [8], but it considered each phase as an individual
case [9]. The finite-element method (FEM) and domain decomposition method were used in [10]. Because the characteristic
dimensions of the structure vary widely, with an order of three
to four or even more, in order to use the FEM, the filament
metal structure of the tower was treated as a solid body with
zero voltage in [10]. Recently, a combined method of electrical
field and electric circuit was proposed to analyze the potential
distribution of the suspended arresters [11]. The equivalent
electric circuit is obtained from a charge simulation method
(CSM) and matrix transformation, and the potential distribution
is solved from the electric circuit analysis by the first law of
Kirchhoff. The complicated EM field problem is then converted
to a simple electrical circuit problem, but in this proposed
method, the housing of the surge arrester was not considered.
In this paper, a hybrid method is also presented to calculate
the electric-field distribution around the composite insulators
and the head of transmission towers. The method couples the
method of moments (MoM) to the indirect BEM, which can
take into account the heterogeneous media, such as the composite insulators and the filament metal structures such as the
transmission towers and the transmission lines altogether.
II. COMBINED METHOD
Because there are not only composite insulators, but also
towers, phase conductors, and ground wires, it is difficult to
calculate the electric-field distribution by a single numerical

0885-8977/$20.00 2006 IEEE

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 21, NO. 2, APRIL 2006

method. MoM is very effective to calculate the field generated

in the system including tower and transmission lines, but it is
not an efficient method to calculate the field in complex heterogeneous medium. BEM can translate the field in a complex
heterogeneous medium into that in a homogeneous medium, but
it is not efficient to calculate the field generated in the system
including the tower and transmission lines. By combining the
advantages of both MoM and BEM, in this paper, a numerical
method coupling these two methods is used to calculate the
electric-field distribution around the composite insulators and
the heads of transmission towers.
First, the tower, the grading rings, the phase conductors,
and the ground wires are divided into short segments. At the
same time, the surfaces of the composite insulators are divided
segments
into small boundary elements. Suppose there are
and
boundary elements. In each segment, there is a corresponding leakage current as an unknown variable. While on
each boundary element, there is a corresponding surface charge
as an unknown variable, which will translate the heterogeneous
medium into a homogeneous medium.

Fig. 1.

Part of a grid.

Fig. 2. Equivalent circuit of Fig. 1.

and
are the longitudinal currents at points
where
and
of segment , respectively. From the equivalent circuit
can
shown in Fig. 2, by applying the electric circuit theory,
be expressed by

A. Equations for the Segments

For the tower, the grading rings, the phase conductors, and
the ground wires, MoM will be used [12]. On the segments,
according to the boundary conditions, the potential difference
on the inner surface of the segment must be equal to that on the
outer surface. The potential difference on the inner surface is
determined by
(1)
where

(5)
where
is the scalar electric potential at the central point
and
is the impedance between the
of segment
central point
and the end point . In a similar way,
can also be obtained. By substituting (3) into (5) and then substituting (5) into (4), (4) will have only leakage currents and
surface charges, and the following equation can be obtained:

(2)

(6)

is the self inductance of the segment, and and

are the
external inductance and the internal impedance of the conductor
of a unit length [13]. While the potential on the outer surface is
determined by

where
and
are coefficients.
If segment is the voltage source, according to (3), the corresponding equation will be
(7)

(3)
is equal to the
where is the current leaking from segment
potential caused by segment when a unit current leaks from the
segment considering the ground image, is the surface charge
is equal to the potential caused by
on boundary element
boundary element with a unit charge considering the ground
image, is the number of the segments, and is the number of
the boundary elements. Therefore, the tower, the grading rings,
the phase conductors, and the ground wires of the transmission
lines can be regarded as a resistance network and the potentials
on the segments outer surfaces can be regarded as sources.
Let us suppose that the longitudinal current in the segment is
centralized on the axis, and the leakage current in the segment
leaks from the segments central point. For segment as shown
in Fig. 1, the leakage current of the th segment
can be expressed by the longitudinal currents as
(4)

For each segment, there is a corresponding equation. For all

equations with
leakage currents and
of the segments,
surface charges as unknown variables are obtained
(8)
is a coefficient matrix by the segments,
is a
where
is a column
coefficient matrix by the boundary elements,
vector of the leakage currents on the segments,
is a
column vector of the surface charges on the boundary elements,
is a column vector of the voltage sources. If the
and
th segment has a voltage source, the th entry of
is the
source value; or else, the th entry of
is zero.
In fact, the CSM coupled to BEM can also be used to calculate the electric-field distribution around the composite insulators and the heads of transmission towers. But MoM has advantages. The first is that MoM can take account of not only
the permittivity but also the resistivity of the media by using the

ZHANG et al.: NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF ELECTRIC-FIELD DISTRIBUTION

961

complex resistivity and the leakage currents as unknown variables. Therefore, MoM can calculate the electric field around the
tower at some frequency, not at dc, and the differences among
the phase angle of the three-phase conductors can be easily considered. Another advantage is that MoM need not set the voltage
for each segment. Because an equivalent circuit can be set up
based on the MoM, the voltage of each segment is determined
by the equivalent circuit. Therefore, only the segments on which
the voltage sources are located should be given the voltages as
(7). If the complex resistivity is used, the CSM and the MoM
will have the same results, because the resistivity of the metal
segment is much smaller than air and each interconnected part
is almost equipotential.
B. Equations for the Boundary Elements
For the composite insulators, BEM will be used. On each
boundary element, an equation can be set up based on the indirect BEM. For example, for the th element, it should be the
following equation [14], [15]:
(9)
is the dielectric constant of the insulator,
is the
where
is the area of the th
normal direction of the th element,
is the electric field at the th element caused
element, and
by the charges on other elements, the ground image of
and
the leakage currents on the segments. Then, a group of equations
can be set up for all of the boundary elements
(10)
where
is a coefficient matrix by the segments, and
is a
coefficient matrix by the boundary elements.
By combining (10) and (8), the final group of equations can
be set up. Then, the leakage currents on the segments and the
surface charges on the boundary elements can be obtained, from
which the electric field and potential around the composite insulators and towers can be calculated.
C. Complex Resistivity
In order to take account of not only the permittivity but also
the resistivity of the media, complex resistivity is used to calculate
in (3), which is defined by
(11)
The complex resistivity will also be used to calculate the electric
field and potential around the composite insulators and towers.
III. VALIDATION
In order to verify the model, the electric-field distribution
along a composite insulator presented in Fig. 1 of [8] is calculated. The method in [8] has been verified by measurements.
There are 72 weathersheds on the housing. A grading device
(ring) is placed at the line end. The permittivity used in the calculation is 4.5 for the housing and 7.2 for the fiberglass rod.
Fig. 3(a) shows the potential distribution along the axis of the insulator. The potential and distance in Fig. 3(a) are in percentage

Fig. 3. Electric-field distribution along the insulation distance at the center line
of the rod. (a) Potential distribution. (b) Electric-field strength distribution.

values. A similar comparison of the electric-field strength distribution is shown in Fig. 3(b).
It can be seen that the electric-field distributions obtained by
the coupling method proposed in this paper are almost the same
with those in [8], which verifies the validity of the method proposed in this paper. Note that the result of [8] in Fig. 3(a) did
not consider the weathersheds while, in this paper, the weathersheds are considered. This also proves the conclusion presented
in [8] that the weathersheds have little effect on the electric-field
distribution.
IV. APPLICATIONS
The electric field and potential distributions around a threephase 330-kV transmission tower with composite insulators are
analyzed by the proposed method. The size of the transmission
tower and composite insulators, the position of the phase conductors, and the ground wires are shown in Fig. 4. There are
three insulator strings (two I-strings and one V-string) installed
on the tower. The dimension of the composite insulator is shown
in Fig. 4(b). The insulator has 33 big weathersheds and 32 small
weathersheds. Each phase of the line has three subconductors
with the diameter of 18.9 mm in converse equiangular triangle
placement. The length of the side of the equiangular triangle is
350 mm. The phase conductors and ground wires in our calculation are 400 m long. The diameter of the grading ring is 340

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 21, NO. 2, APRIL 2006

Fig. 4. Three-phase 330-kV transmission tower with composite insulators.

(a) Three-phase 330-kV transmission tower. (b) Composite insulator.

Fig. 6. Electric-field strength distribution along the composite insulators.

(a) I-string. (b) One arm of V-string.

Fig. 5. Potential distribution around the tower.

mm with the diameter of the metal tube being 30 mm. The distance from the upper surface of the grading ring to the end of the
composite insulator is 65 mm. Fig. 5 shows the potential distributions around the tower. Figs. 6 and 7 show the electric-field
distributions and the potential distributions around the I-string
and V-string, respectively. Table I shows the maximum electric-field strengths on the surfaces of the grading rings and at
the ends of the composite insulators.
From Figs. 57, it can be seen that the effects of the composite insulators on the whole electric field and potential distribution around the tower are very small, which was also verified
in [8]. This is because the volume of the insulators is very small

Fig. 7. Potential distribution along the composite insulators. (a) I-string.

(b) One arm of V-string.

compared with the whole tower. The electric fields vary greatly
near the grading rings while varying slowly far away from the

ZHANG et al.: NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF ELECTRIC-FIELD DISTRIBUTION

grading rings. Because of the existence of the tower and the difference of the insulators installation, the electric fields around
the three-phase conductors are quite different.
From Table I, it can be seen that although the V-string is in the
window of the tower, the maximum electric-field strength on the
surfaces of the grading rings at the V-strings high-voltage end is
smaller than that at the I-strings HV end. This may be because
there are two grading rings at the V-strings HV end which can
shield each other. The maximum electric-field strength at the
V-strings HV end is a little greater than that at the I-strings HV
end, while the electric-field strength at the V-strings grounded
ends is much smaller than that at the I-strings grounded end.
This may be because the tower has a different shielding effect
on the insulators grounded ends.
Due to the shielding effects of the hardware fittings and
grading rings, it is noteworthy that the maximum electric-field
strengths along the surfaces of the subconductors near the tower
do not occur just near the hardware fittings, but at the places
with a little distance from the hardware fittings. This can be
seen from Fig. 8.
From Fig. 8, it can be seen that due to the shielding effects
of the hardware fittings and grading rings, the electric-field
strengths on the surfaces of the subconductors near the hardware fittings are small. These electric-field strengths increase
quickly with the distances from the hardware fittings and reach
corresponding peak values due to the effect of the tower. Then
they decrease slowly with the distances from the hardware
fittings until reaching the midspan.
For the subconductors of the middle phase, because the lower
subconductor is farthest from the grading rings, the electric-field
strength on the surface of this subconductor near the hardware
fittings is greater than those of the upper subconductors on both
sides, but with the increase of the distance from the hardware
fitting, the difference among the subconductors becomes small.
The peak value appears at the distance 1.7 m from the hardware
fitting, which is 10% higher than the maximum electric field on
the surfaces of the subconductors at the midspan.
For the subconductors of the side phase, because the lower
subconductor is farthest from the grading rings, the electric-field
strength on the surface of this subconductor near the hardware
fitting is also greater than those of the upper subconductor on
both sides, and with the increase of the distance from the hardware fitting, the difference among the subconductors becomes
small. However, the electric-field strength on the surface of this
subconductor increases more slowly than that of the upper subconductor close to the tower, and at the distance 0.6 m from the
hardware fitting, this electric-field strength begins to be smaller
than that of the upper subconductor close to the tower. The peak
value appears at the distance 2 m from the hardware fitting,
which is 8% higher than the maximum electric field on the surfaces of the subconductors at the midspan.
In summary, due to the shielding effects of the hardware fittings and grading rings, the electric-field strengths on the surfaces of the subconductors near the hardware fittings are small
and quite different from each other. However, at the places with
a little distance from the hardware fittings, the effect of the
tower appears great while the effects of the hardware fittings

963

Fig. 8. Maximum electric-field strengths along the surfaces of the

subconductors near the tower. (a) Middle phase: A is the lower subconductor
and B is the upper subconductor on both sides. (b) Side phase: A is the upper
subconductor far away from the tower, B is the upper subconductor close to the
tower, and C is the lower subconductor.

and grading rings become small, and the electric-field strengths

reach corresponding peak values. Then, all of the effects become small and the electric-field strengths on the surfaces of
the subconductors decrease slowly with the distances from the
hardware fittings until reaching the midspan.
Due to the effect of the tower, the maximum electric-field
strengths on the surfaces of the subconductors of each phase
are also different. Because the middle phase passes through the
window of the tower, the maximum electric-field strength of
the middle phase is 7% higher than those of phases on both
sides. The peak value of the middle phase appears at the lower
subconductor while that of the side phase appears at the upper
subconductor close to the tower.
V. CONCLUSION
A method coupling the indirect BEM to moment method is
presented to analyze the electric-field distribution around the
composite insulators and the transmission tower. The method

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 21, NO. 2, APRIL 2006

can take into account not only the permittivity but also the resistivity of the media by using the complex resistivity and the
leakage currents as unknown variables. Therefore, it can take
account the composite insulators, the transmission towers, the
phase conductors, and the ground wires altogether at some frequency, not at dc, and the differences among the phase angle of
the three-phase conductors can be easily considered. Because an
equivalent circuit can be set up based on the MoM, the voltage of
each segment is determined by the equivalent circuit, and only
the segments on which the voltage sources are located should
be given. The method is verified by comparing the results with
those in [8].
The electric-field distribution around a three-phase 330-kV
transmission tower with composite insulators was analyzed, and
several interesting results are obtained.
1) The effects of the composite insulators on the whole electric field and potential distribution around the tower are
very small.
2) The maximum electric-field strength on the surfaces of the
grading rings of the V-strings HV end is 6.5% smaller
than that of the I-strings HV end, while the maximum
electric-field strength at the V-strings HV end is 18.3%
greater than that at the I-strings HV end.
3) Due to the shielding effects of the hardware fittings and
grading rings, the maximum electric-field strengths along
the surfaces of the subconductors near the tower do not
occur just near the hardware fittings. For middle phase,
the peak value appears at the distance 1.7 m from the
hardware fitting, which is 10% higher than the maximum
electric field on the surfaces of the subconductors at the
midspan. While for side phase, the peak value appears at
the distance 2 m from the hardware fitting, which is 8%
higher than the maximum electric field on the surfaces of
the subconductors at the midspan.
4) The maximum electric-field strength of the middle phase
is 7% higher than those of phases on both sides.
Both the method and the results are useful for the design of
high-voltage transmission lines.

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Bo Zhang was born in Datong, China, in 1976. He received the B.Sc. and
Ph.D. degrees in theoretical electrical engineering from the North China Electric Power University, Baoding, China, in 1998 and 2003, respectively.
Currently, he is a Research Assistant in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. His research interests include
computational electromagnetics, grounding technology, and electromagnetic
compatibility in power systems.

Shejiao Han was born in Xian, China, in 1966. He received the Ph.D. degree in
theoretical electrical engineering from Xian Jiaotong University, Xian, China,
in 2003.
Currently, he is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Electrical
Engineering, Tsinghua University. His research interests include computational
electromagnetics.

Jinliang He (M02SM02) was born in Changsha, China, in 1966. He received

the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Wuhan University of Hydraulic
and Electrical Engineering, Wuhan, China, in 1988, the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Chongqing University, Chongqing, China, in 1991, and
the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing,
China, in 1994.
Currently, he is the Vice Chief of the High Voltage Research Institute, Tsinghua University. He became a Lecturer in 1994 and an Associate Professor in
1996 in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University. From
1994 to 1997, he was the Head of High Voltage Laboratory, Tsinghua University.
From 1997 to 1998, he was a Visiting Scientist in the Korea Electrotechnology
Research Institute, Changwon, Korea, involved in research on metal-oxide varistors and high-voltage polymeric metal-oxide surge arresters. In 2001, he was
promoted to Professor in Tsinghua University. His research interests include
overvoltages and electromagnetic compatibility in power systems and electronic
systems, grounding technology, power apparatus, dielectric material, and power
distribution automation. He is the author of five books and many technical papers.
Dr. He is a Senior Member of the China Electrotechnology Society and a
member of the International Compumag Society. He is the China representative
of IEC TC 81, Vice Chief of the China Lightning Protection Standardization
Technology Committee, and member of the Electromagnetic Interference Protection Committee and Transmission Line Committee of the China Power Electric Society, member of the China Surge Arrester Standardization Technology
Committee, and member of the Overvoltage and Insulation Coordination Standardization Technology Committee and Surge Arrester Standardization Technology Committee in Electric Power Industry. He is the Chief Editor of the
Journal of Lightning Protection and Standardization (in Chinese).

ZHANG et al.: NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF ELECTRIC-FIELD DISTRIBUTION

Rong Zeng (M02) was born in Shaanxi, China, in 1971. He received the B.Sc.,
M.Eng., and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 1995, 1997, and 1999, respectively.
He became a Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua
University, in 1999, and Associate Professor in the same department in 2002.
His research interests include high-voltage technology, grounding technology,
power electronics, and distribution system automation.

965

Puxuan Zhu was born in Chongqing, China, in 1943. He received the B.Sc.
degree from the Department of Electrical Engineering, Wuhan University of
Hydraulic and Electric Power Engineering, Wuhan, China, in 1966.
Currently, he is a Researcher in the Department of Electrical Engineering,
Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. His research interests include high-voltage
technology and compact power transmission technology.