R. Sundararajan et Rs. Gorur, EFFECT OF INSULATOR PROFILES ON DC FLASHOVER VOLTAGE UNDER POLLUTED CONDITIONS - A STUDY USING A DYNAMIC ARC MODEL, IEEE transactions on dielectrics and electrical insulation, 1(1), 1994, pp. 124-132
From field experience and laboratory tests, it has been observed that
the contamination flashover voltage of insulators used on dc lines is
more influenced by geometry (diameter and profile) than those used on
ac lines. Presented in this paper are the results and analysis of a st
udy of the effect of insulator shapes on the dc contamination flashove
r voltage. A dynamic arc model is used for this purpose. The salient f
eature of the model is that it takes into account the geometry of the
insulator at every instant of the arc propagation, and thus includes t
he role of geometry in the contamination flashover process. A variety
of porcelain cap and pin insulator geometries that are widely used in
practice have been evaluated using this model. Nonuniform pollution di
stribution on insulators, which is more representative of field condit
ions, has also been considered, and its effect on the flashover voltag
e has been evaluated for the various geometries. Results are in good a
greement with the experimental findings. Use of the model as a design
tool to select type and number of insulators for HVDC transmission lin
es has been illustrated.