Measurement of Voltage Distribution on High Voltage Suspension Insulator String Under Polluted Condition

Abstract

From electrical engineering point of view insulator plays an important role. As it is used as basic element in overhead transmission and distribution networks. They are not only to insulate the power line but also to carry the weight of the transmission line conductor. Voltage and electric field are the main factors to withstand the insulation. Therefore it is very much essential for insulator string to relate the potential distribution and electric field distribution to that of the respective ideal string accurately. In operational high voltage, the non-uniformity of potential distribution across the insulator string is due to the presence of stray capacitance. Also, the performance of insulator (voltage distribution, electric field distribution) varies by the deposition of environmental pollutants either uniformly distributed or non-uniformly distributed on the surface of insulator, which deteriorated by the help of captivation of moisture particles sharply. So to sort out this dilemma practically by the help of a full equivalent circuit in which the properties of insulating material and stray capacitance effect should be taken for proper consideration, which is derived from the Finite Element Method Based Software and executed in the Ansys Maxwell software package for the calculation of potential distribution, electric field distribution and also electric field vector distribution throughout the specified string with and without pollutants in proper power frequency along with desired voltage. A comparison between normal and polluted (coastal polluted and industrial polluted) creepage voltage vs creepage distance in graphical form is studied by using Matlab. Finally a voltage gradient and electric field comparison is studied by using Matlab.