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2, 2012
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Research article
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ISSN 2277 9442
Nomenclature
C
EMTP-ATP
FEM
IEC
Megger
Pi
Rp
Ud
Uti
Capacitance
Electromagnetic transient modeling software for power systems- Alternative
transients program
Finite element method
International Electrotechnical Commission
Mega ohm meter
Percentage of voltage across the i-insulator unit
Pollution resistance
Breakdown voltage of sphere gap
Applied voltage to the insulator string for i-insulator
Electric charge density
Dielectric constant
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.
(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:
Mohammad Bagher Asadpoor, Mohammad Mirzaie
Int. Journal of Applied Sciences and Engineering Research, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2012
166
Simulation and measurement of the voltage distribution on high voltage suspension Porcelain insulator string under pollution
condition
1
F(v) =
2
2
2
v 2
v
v
x + y + z dxdydz
D
x
z
y
(2)
F(vi )
=0
vi
; i = 1,2,3,....n
(3)
167
Simulation and measurement of the voltage distribution on high voltage suspension Porcelain insulator string under pollution
condition
a.
b.
Figure 3 a. Complete structure of insulator string in FEM-based software b. Equivalent electric circuit
168
Simulation and measurement of the voltage distribution on high voltage suspension Porcelain insulator string under pollution
condition
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.
Ins. No.
Kaolin /Salt
(gr/lit)
40/10
Measured electrical
Conductance in 20oC
(S/m)
0.0168
40/10
Salinity (Sa)
ESDD
Pollution
level
0.089
0.028
Light
0.0155
0.082
0.026
Light
40/10
0.0144
0.076
0.024
Light
40/40
0.0885
0.494
0.156
Moderate
40/40
0.0845
0.471
0.149
Moderate
40/40
0.0989
0.554
0.175
Moderate
40/70
0.198
1.133
0.358
Heavy
40/70
0.181
1.031
0.326
Heavy
40/70
0.212
1.215
0.384
Heavy
169
Simulation and measurement of the voltage distribution on high voltage suspension Porcelain insulator string under pollution
condition
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.
x 10
800
4000
2000
3500
3000
2500
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 )
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 )
1750
1500
1250
700
650
600
550
500
2000
1000
0
0
10
20
Time (min)
30
a.
10
20
Time (min)
b.
30
10
20
Time (min)
30
450
0
c.
10
20
Time (min)
30
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
Int. Journal of Applied Sciences and Engineering Research, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2012
170
Simulation and measurement of the voltage distribution on high voltage suspension Porcelain insulator string under pollution
condition
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
6
8
10
Insulator number
12
14
Pollution level
Without pollution
Light pollution
Moderate pollution
0.5924
0.925
Heavy pollution
0.5934
2.467
171
Simulation and measurement of the voltage distribution on high voltage suspension Porcelain insulator string under pollution
condition
20
Without pollution
Light pollution
Moderate pollution
Heavy pollution
15
10
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
Transformer
220 v
0-220 v
HV
Transformer
V1
Electrostatic
voltmeter
0-100 kv
172
Simulation and measurement of the voltage distribution on high voltage suspension Porcelain insulator string under pollution
condition
Pi =
Ud
100%
U ti
(4)
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
i =1
i =1
Pi = Ud
1
=1
U ti
(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
Exprimental Results
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
6
8
10
Insulator number
12
14
Figure 9: Comparison between simulation and the experimental results for clean and dry insulator string
20
Simulation Results
Exprimental Results
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
6
8
10
Insulator number
12
14
Figure 10 Comparison between simulation and the experimental results for heavy pollution level
173
Simulation and measurement of the voltage distribution on high voltage suspension Porcelain insulator string under pollution
condition
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
1. Asenjo. E, Morales N, Valdenegro., 1997. Solution of low frequency complex fields in
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
Component System. doi: 10.1080/15325000903489694.
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,
IEEE PES; September., 3, 915 920. doi: 10.1109/TDC.2003.1335059.
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7. IEC Standard 60507, 1991. Artificial pollution tests on high voltage insulators to be used on
A.C. systems.
8. IEC Standard 60060-1, 1989, High voltage test technique, Part 1: General Definitions and test
Mohammad Bagher Asadpoor, Mohammad Mirzaie
Int. Journal of Applied Sciences and Engineering Research, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2012
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condition
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