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2012 by the authors Licensee IJASER- Under Creative Commons License 3.0 editorial@ijaser.com
Research article ISSN 2277 9442
Abstract: Satisfactory operation of suspension insulator strings is intimately related to the voltage
distribution of the string. At operational voltage, the voltage distribution along insulator string is affected
by stray capacitances, which causes a non-uniform voltage distribution. In addition, the performance of
insulator changes by the accumulation of environmental pollution over its surface that will deteriorate by
absorption of moisture sharply. In order to explain this dilemma clearly, a full equivalent circuit, which
takes into account the insulator material properties and the stray capacitances, is derived from the Finite
Element Method Based Software, which is implemented in the EMTP-ATP package to calculate the
voltage distribution, power loss and the leakage current, flowing through the string with and without
pollution under power frequency voltage. Finally, the simulation results of voltage distribution have
been compared with experimental results, which were obtained in the High Voltage Laboratory. In
experimental procedure, an attempt to form the pollution on the surface of the insulator has been carried
out. For this investigation the dry pollutant on the insulator surface has been approached according to
IEC60507, which has led to the resistance of pollutants. Then, the voltage distribution of clean and
polluted insulator strings has been measured by sphere gap method.
1. Introduction
Insulators capability to insulate the power lines as well as their function in bearing the weight of
the line conductor, makes it to be of significant importance in the overhead transmission lines. The
knowledge of the voltage distribution and electric field within and around high voltage insulators is of
165
*Corresponding author (e-mail: mirzaie@nit.ac.ir)
Received on, Feb, 2012; Accepted on Feb. 2012; Published on Feb 24, 2012
Simulation and measurement of the voltage distribution on high voltage suspension Porcelain insulator string under pollution
condition
paramount importance for the engineer involved in the design of power lines insulation. For instance,
voltage distribution is helpful for the detection of punctured insulators in the string. Corona, radio/TV
interference and premature aging of insulation are the results of high level electric fields. Ideally, the
potential distribution along the insulator string should be uniform. The capacitance of each insulator can
be determined approximately by the geometry and permittivity of each consisting element, while
neglecting the impact of stray fields. However, for a more accurate computation of the potential
distribution, a finite-element package is required to compute the insulator string capacitances (including
stray capacitances).
Contamination level and the design of the fittings, conductors and tower are eminent facts that
influence the voltage distribution over an insulator string. The line insulators are often covered with
contaminations, especially in industrial and coastal regions due to the long time exposure in the air. In a
condition of high humidity, the salt in the contamination will be dissolved by the moisture because of
rain, fog or dew. Therefore, the conductivity of the surface pollution increases, leading to a possible
flashover accident.
To compute the electric fields and potentials along a polluted insulator, numerous methods have
been used such as boundary element method (QueW, 2002; Rasolonjanahary, 1992), finite difference
method (Morales et al, 2001) and finite element method (Asenjo, 1997; Ashouri et al, 2010; Faisal,
2011). Potential distribution along a suspension insulator string have been determined by FEM
(Kontargyri et al, 2005) and theoretical model which considered the contamination effect in (Dhalaan
2003 a; Dhalaan 2003 b). In experimental part, reference (Pattanadech, 2004) have been measured the
voltage distribution along three insulators string by sphere gaps method. Also, this method is used as a
reliable method in (Kontargyri et al, 2005) to calculate the voltage distribution on glass insulator string.
However, no remarkable endeavor regarding the polluted condition and its impacts upon the voltage
distribution in test procedure has been made so far.
In the present paper, a full electric circuit of insulator string, considering the insulation geometry,
permittivity and stray capacitances, which were derived from a FEM-based software, have been
presented. The circuit was simulated in ATP-EMTP in order to calculate the voltage distribution and
leakage current following throw the string under various pollution levels. To verify the simulation results,
insulators are subjected to the pollution of different severity, according to IEC 60507 and the simulation
results of voltage distribution for clean and polluted insulators, have been compared with experimental
results using sphere gap method which have an acceptable accordance.
2v = (1)
The finite element method is one of numerical process based on the variation approach and has been
widely used in electric and magnetic field analyses which have illustrated widely in (He et al, 2009). In this
investigation electrostatic problem should be solved to compute the voltage distribution of insulator string.
The boundary problem of the electrostatic field, by supposing that the domain under consideration does not
contain any space and surface charges, is turned to evaluate the functional equation:
1 v 2 v
2
v
2
F(v) = x + y + z dxdydz
D z
(2)
2 x y
Whole domains of the solution divide into many triangles, which equation (2) must be applied to
them. The calculation of the electric potential at every knot in the total network composed of many
triangle elements was carried out by minimizing the functional F(v) , that is,
F(vi )
=0 ; i = 1,2,3,....n (3)
vi
Where n is the total number of knots in the solution region.
For the simulation of insulator string in different pollution condition, equivalent circuit parameters
shall be determined. In order to calculate the self capacitance of each insulator unit and stray
capacitances between caps and ground, caps and energized conductor and also each insulator cap and
other caps, the insulator string structure is drawn in a FEM-based software. The complete part of a
transmission line; including insulator string, tower and conductor and its equivalent circuit are shown in
Figure 3.
a. b.
Figure 3 a. Complete structure of insulator string in FEM-based software b. Equivalent electric circuit
First, the voltage and field stress distributions on the insulator string were computed. Then
computed electric field values are used to obtain the electrical energy (We) stored in various parts of the
model. These energies values combine with the computed potentials (V) to allow determination of the
various capacitances of the equivalent circuit. It should be mentioned that, pollution level for all of the
insulators in the string are the same ( Rp = Rp = ... = Rp ). In addition, the pollution resistances are
1 2
measured by Megger test that will be represented in the next section.
Measured electrical
Kaolin /Salt Pollution
Ins. No. Conductance in 20oC Salinity (Sa) ESDD
(gr/lit) level
(S/m)
1 40/10 0.0168 0.089 0.028 Light
tested, that the average resistance of them are shown in Figure 5. As it mentioned, the higher pollution
degree exist, the lower pollution resistance occurred. For the simulation, the average value of resistance
in thirtieth minute has been considered.
4
x 10
7 800
4000 2000
6 750
In su la to r R esista n ce (M o h m )
In su la to r R esista n ce (M o h m )
In su la to r R esista n ce (M o h m )
In su la to r R esista n ce (M o h m )
5 3500 1750 700
4 650
3000
1500
3 600
2 2500 550
1250
1 500
2000
1000
0 450
0 10 20 30 0 10 20 30 0 10 20 30 0 10 20 30
Time (min) Time (min) Time (min) Time (min)
a. b. c. d.
Figure 5 Average resistance of Polluted Insulators a. Without pollution b. Moderate pollution c. Light
pollution d. Heavy pollution
3. Simulation results
Since getting the leakage current throw insulator string and lower running time, ATP-EMTP has
been used. The lumped equivalence circuit in Figure 3.b is running in ATP-EMTP and results have been
obtained.
Mohammad Bagher Asadpoor, Mohammad Mirzaie 170
Int. Journal of Applied Sciences and Engineering Research, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2012
Simulation and measurement of the voltage distribution on high voltage suspension Porcelain insulator string under pollution
condition
20
18
Voltage distribution (%)
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Insulator number
Figure 6: Voltage distribution along insulator string under clean condition
20 Without pollution
Light pollution
Moderate pollution
10
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Insulator number
Figure 7: Voltage distribution along insulator string with different pollution levels
4. Experimental procedure
To measure the voltage distribution of an insulator string, sphere gap method has been used in this
paper. The required facilities for the test are shown in Figure 8.
Self HV Electrostatic
Transformer Transformer voltmeter
The voltage is measured by using an electrostatic voltmeter, measuring the high voltage in the
secondary part of the transformer (IEC 60060-1, 1989). Distance between two spheres is fixed during
the voltage measurement. The sphere gap is installed parallel with each insulator. The capacitance of the
sphere gap is very small compared to the capacitance of the insulator, so it can be neglected. The applied
voltage to the insulator string is up turned until the spark over of the sphere gap at the critical voltage
(Ud) occurred. Ten tests for each of the insulators has been carried out to obtain the accurate results and
the average of them have been considered as Ut. Then the percentage of voltage across the i-insulator
unit Pi , is calculated by:
Mohammad Bagher Asadpoor, Mohammad Mirzaie 172
Int. Journal of Applied Sciences and Engineering Research, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2012
Simulation and measurement of the voltage distribution on high voltage suspension Porcelain insulator string under pollution
condition
Ud
Pi = 100% (4)
U ti
By moving the sphere gap along the insulator string, rate Pi for every insulator will achieve until
thirteenth. Ut for each insulator varies, since the existence of stray capacitances between the cap and pin
of the insulators, tower and conductor. Totally, the critical voltage of the sphere gap is calculated by the
equation:
13 13
1
Pi = Ud
i =1 i =1 U ti
=1 (5)
As a result, by calculating Ud, the voltage percentage of each insulator will obtain. The
experimental and simulation results for clean and dry insulator string are shown in Figure 9.
20 Simulation Results
18 Exprimental Results
Voltage distribution (%)
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Insulator number
Figure 9: Comparison between simulation and the experimental results for clean and dry insulator string
20 Simulation Results
18 Exprimental Results
Voltage distribution (%)
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14
Insulator number
Figure 10 Comparison between simulation and the experimental results for heavy pollution level
It shows that there should be more consideration to the insulators near the conductor in
comparison with other insulators in the string. As it can be seen, there is an acceptable concord between
the results. In this comparison the root mean square and maximum value of errors for all units are 2.7
and 5. Also all of the insulators in the string are contaminated according to the IEC60507 and suspended
in the chamber. The same experimental procedure for voltage measurement is conducted in the ambient
humidity and heavy pollution level and results are shown in figure 10. The experimental results admit
the simulation ones that show, dry pollution doesnt affect the voltage distribution of the string.
5. Conclusion
In this work, a full electric circuit of insulator string, which takes into account the insulator material
properties and the stray capacitances, was derived. The capacitances values are calculated using a
finite-element package. The circuit was implemented in the EMTP-ATP package in order to simulate the
voltage distribution and the leakage currents flowing through the insulator string under various scenarios
of pollution. Also, indoor laboratory experiments for the investigation of pollution severity on potential
distribution along a 230 kV I-string insulator have been carried out in low humidity that made a dry
pollution on insulator surface. A very satisfactory agreement has been ascertained when comparing
experimental results with results from simulations. The results show the voltage distribution and leakage
current on pollution condition didnt change remarkably in comparison with the clean condition. As can
be concluded, when pollution level increased to heavy, the electric potential over the unit nearest to the
line conductor decreased from 19.98 % to 19.9 %, which had a reduction of about 0.4%. Although
power loss on insulator string in clean and pollution condition is very low, it changes from 0.031 W in
clean condition to 2.467 W in heavy pollution condition.
6 References
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polluted insulators by means of the finite element method, IEEE Transactions on
Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation. doi:10.1109/94.590856.
2. Ashouri. M, Mirzaie. M, Gholami. A, 2010. Calculation of Voltage Distribution along
Porcelain Suspension Insulators Based on Finite Element Method, Electric Power
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3. Dhalaan, S.M.A.; Elhirbawy, M.A., 2003. Investigation on the characteristics of a string
of insulator due to the effect of dirt, Transmission and Distribution Conference and Exposition,
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Mohammad Bagher Asadpoor, Mohammad Mirzaie 174
Int. Journal of Applied Sciences and Engineering Research, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2012
Simulation and measurement of the voltage distribution on high voltage suspension Porcelain insulator string under pollution
condition
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