2017 - Ijece
2017 - Ijece
2017 - Ijece
Corresponding Author:
N. A. Othman,
Department of Electrical Power Engineering,
Faculty of Electrical & Electronic Engineering,
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM),
86400 Batu Pahat, Malaysia.
Email: [email protected]
1. INTRODUCTION
Overhead transmission lines can carry alternate current (AC) or direct current (DC) or both in an
electric power system. Overhead AC transmission lines carry three phase current and the transmission
voltages are between the range of 69kV and 765kV. However, the DC voltage transmission tower lines are
revolve in pairs for positive and negative current [1].
High voltage (HV) power lines have been widely used to transmit the electric energy from the
power stations to the consumers. Since a large part of power generation takes place at significant distances
from consumer, transmission lines must be employed to carry the power generated to its destination. It is well
known that overhead transmission generally consists of three primary components which are conductors,
insulators and tower structures.
Overhead transmission insulators can be considered cheap when compared with other HV
equipment. However, these insulators play an important role in protecting the most expensive equipment
which subsists in the power system network. Moreover, a reliable transmission network is partly dependent
on overhead transmission insulators [2]. More than a million units of overhead insulators have been
providing an excellent service over than 25 years in both transmission and distribution lines. However, these
insulators must be designed not only to withstand electrical stress but also to tolerate the mechanical forces
applied by the surroundings to successfully fulfil their functions. There are two main types of insulators that
is commonly used in power system network which are ceramic and polymeric insulators.
Ceramic insulators which consist of glass and porcelain are the earliest insulators used in the power
system transmission lines [3]. The pictorial view of glass and porcelain insulators is depicted in Figure 1.
Both insulators have been used for over a century and their application can be considered as a safe choice.
The raw materials for glass insulators includes soda ash, feldspar and cullet as well as a few other ingredients
that crushed to form powder and melted in a furnace [4]. Toughening significantly increases the mechanical
strength, making the glass shell suitable for the use of HV insulator. Meanwhile, high strength electrical
grade porcelain for line insulators is usually made by the classical wet process. Raw materials like clay are
mixed in water to facilitate blending. Therefore, even a small crack in the porcelain insulator may effect on
the puncture strength of the insulator [5].
(a) (b)
The common types of insulators like porcelain, glass and polymer have been used according to their
respective capabilities. However, there are many factors that can bring to the insulators failure. The examples
of intrinsic and external factors of the insulation failures includes radial cracking, pin corrosion, brittle
fracture, damage to bulk dielectric and spontaneous shattering [6]. Since the outdoor insulators particularly
porcelain are subjects to electric stress and weather conditions, the insulator tends to be broken due to
unequal rate of expansion and contraction of porcelain, steel and cement caused by climate conditions. Apart
from that, improper glazing on the insulator surface also can cause the moisture to stick on it with the
deposited dust; hence a conducting path may be produced and lead to the flashover occurrence. The flashover
occurrence may cause overheat on the insulator and may result in cracking and shattering process. Besides, it
is accepted that the insulator may break the weak portion when experiencing a mechanical stress [7].
In the presence of higher stress or over-voltage, glass insulators in a string may result in completely
broken sheds. However, porcelain insulator only can be broken in chunk and leaves a large remaining pieces
of their shed under same conditions. It is worth mentioning that the porcelain insulators still can serve the
transmission line even though in broken or partially broken condition. However, how long these insulators
can withstand to serve the line is still questioned since the broken insulator may cause other insulator to
withstand the remaining voltage allocated for that particular insulator. This situation may results in the
voltage and electric field distribution alteration. The alteration of voltage and electric field distribution may
affect the insulator in terms of the life span and ultimately lead to the insulation breakdown after a certain
period of time. Therefore, this paper presents an analysis of broken porcelain insulator on voltage and electric
characteristics.
2. SIMULATION WORKS
In this paper, cap and pin type porcelain insulator of ANSI 52-3 type is used as main subject [8].
The insulator is miniature in free space using QuickField software for the simulation purpose. Technical
parameters of the porcelain insulator [9] is tabulated in Table 1 while the cross section area of porcelain
insulator is presented in Figure 2 [10]. The simulation was conducted in AC analysis problem type with the
voltage of 11kV and 132kV was applied to the insulator pin for single insulator and insulator string,
respectively. It is important highlighting that the simulation was conducted in axisymmetric axis which
require only a cross section area in the simulation works
In order to analyse the voltage and electric characteristics of broken porcelain insulator subjected
dissimilarity of the broken types, three distinct configurations are used namely;
1. Case A1: Broken porcelain insulator with broken shed 1.
2. Case A2: Broken porcelain insulator with broken shed 2.
Potential and Electric Field Characteristics of Broken Porcelain Insulator (H. Rosli)
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Figure 3. The configuration of broken insulator for (a) Perfect, (b) Case A1, (c) Case A2, (d) Case A3
when the insulator shed is broken, it is observed in Figure 4(b) to Figure 4(d) that the high potential was
distributed more near the steel pin. It is also apparent that the equipotential lines getting narrower when the
insulator shed is broken. It is worth stating that the colour pattern of the contour indicates the different
potential value across each insulator.
Figure 5 illustrates the potential distribution along creepage distance for all cases of broken
porcelain insulators when compared to the perfect insulator. It is apparent that the potential distribution of
perfect insulator retain the highest value compared to the broken insulators; this findings affirmed by [12].
Generally, the potential distribution pattern can be said as non-uniform along the creepage distance when
measured from HV electrode for all cases. However, the broken shed of case A3 bears the most significant
potential value and contribute the highest percentage reduction of potential compared to other cases as the
reduction value is the highest when compared to perfect case.
Table 2 shows the maximum and minimum value of voltage for perfect and all cases of broken
porcelain insulators. From the tabulated data in Table 2, it can be said that the maximum reduction of potential
value occurred in case A3 when almost all shed is broken. Therefore, it can be summarized that the nearer the
broken of shed of an insulator to the HV electrode, the more potential value will be fluctuated.
Figure 4. Contour of potential distribution across single insulator for (a) Perfect; (b) Case A1; (c) Case A2;
and (d) Case A3
Figure 5. Potential distribution for all cases of broken porcelain insulators when compared to the perfect
insulator
Potential and Electric Field Characteristics of Broken Porcelain Insulator (H. Rosli)
3118 ISSN: 2088-8708
Figure 6. Contour of electric field distribution across single insulator for (a) Perfect; (b) Case A1; (c) Case
A2; (d) and Case A3
Figure 7. Electrical field distribution of single porcelain insulator compared with all cases of broken
porcelain insulators
Table 3 shows the maximum and minimum value of electrical field of the four cases of single
porcelain insulator. It is appear to indicate that the broken of insulator in the shed nearest to the electrode
bears the most effect of electric field distribution across the insulator.
Different cases of broken porcelain insulators presented has been concluded that the porcelain
insulator with broken shed 3 has the most significant effect on potential and electric field distribution.
Therefore, further investigation of the most significant effect of broken porcelain insulator on voltage and
electric characteristics were tested on 10 units of insulator strings in different location of the broken insulator
which are near the electrode, in the middle, near the ground and alternate position.
From the simulation contour of Figure 8, it can be observed that perfect insulator string the
distribution of potential is gradually decreased from the insulator pin to the insulator cap. However, in the
presence of broken insulator in the string, the potential pattern increased in variant with different location of
the broken insulator approached to transmission line. Based on the graph, the potential is not uniformly
distributed across each insulator. The first insulator that is located at the HV electrode (near the transmission
line) bears the highest potential value for all cases. The potential is then decreases in the next insulators along
to the ground electrode.
Figure 9 shows the potential distribution of 10 units of porcelain insulator in a string. It is obvious
from the figure that the voltage distribution is affected when broken insulator exists in the string. This finding
is supported by Xiu-chen [16] which concluded that the insulators near the earth are sensitive to the voltage-
change of the insulator near the power line, but the latter are not sensitive to that of the frontier. By their
analysis, it can be concluded that the sensitivity of string insulator is most affected when broken insulator
exist near the ground (earth).
According to Azordegan et al. [17], the electromagnetic radiations are stronger at the end of positive
cycle for a cracked insulator while the electromagnetic radiations are stronger at the end of negative cycle for
a polluted insulator. This supported the observation from the present findings when the potential distribution
decreases along the string due to cracks on the porcelain insulator shed. Besides that, the mechanical strength
reduction of insulator also causing undesired partial discharges.
The lowest average potential value of 50kV was recorded at the B1 case string with 35.06%
reduction from the perfect string insulator can be calculated from Figure 9. The graph is then dramatically
decrease for all the cases. It can be shown that the potential which should bear by the first insulator have been
transferred to the second insulator and so on. Table 5 tabulates the average, maximum and minimum value of
voltage across string with 10 units of porcelain insulator in all cases. It is noticed that the average value
indicate that the presents of broken insulator in a string affects the voltage across the string insulator. But, the
result shows that the B4 case bears the most significant effect on the potential distribution of string with 10
units of porcelain insulator due to the highest reduction value of voltage at the end of the string insulator in
ground terminal.
Potential and Electric Field Characteristics of Broken Porcelain Insulator (H. Rosli)
3120 ISSN: 2088-8708
Figure 8. Potential distribution of string porcelain insulator for (a) Perfect string insulator, (b) B1 string
insulator, (c) B2 string insulator, (d) B3 string insulator, and (e) B4 string insulator
within the string has little or no effect on the level of classification performance. By relating to the
conclusion, it has confirmed the similarity patterns in the present findings in Figure 10.
In addition, a study conducted by Palhade [19] found that the high temperature produced in current
carrying conductor is not enough to transfer over an insulator assembly component during a short period of
time. It could be safe to assume that the temperature is not high enough to significantly affect the
performance in terms of mechanical and thermal characteristics of an insulator assembly for short duration in
this study. Hence, the data obtained from broken porcelain insulators in all cases of string insulator has not
been affected much by the temperature of the current. However, in real operation of overhead HV insulators,
electrical and mechanical loading, variable atmospheric condition and environmental pollution may degrade
the bonding characteristics of cement, even disc material which is basically brittle in nature leading to failure
of insulator assembly.
Figure 10. Electric field distribution of string porcelain insulator for (a) Perfect string insulator, (b) B1 string
insulator, (c) B2 string insulator, (d) B3 string insulator, and (e) B4 string insulator
Table 6. The highest and lowest value of electric field in string insulator
String Electric Field (kV/cm) Average (kV/cm)
Max Min
Perfect 1791.2 1.0 313.5
B1 2513.5 1.3 454.4
B2 2510.1 0.8 465.8
B3 2186.3 1.4 488.4
B4 2883.8 1.1 484.2
Potential and Electric Field Characteristics of Broken Porcelain Insulator (H. Rosli)
3122 ISSN: 2088-8708
Table 6 shows the electric field value in all cases of string insulator with and without broken
porcelain insulator. The result shows that highest value of electric field distribution is found in the first
insulator in Case B3 based on Figure 11. Meanwhile, highest value of electric field was found in case B4 at
the tenth insulator as mentioned in Table 6.
4. CONCLUSION
This paper set out to explore the influence of broken shed in porcelain insulator in terms of voltage
and electrical characteristics. From the results obtained, a few conclusions had been made concerning the
purpose of this investigation.
1. The single porcelain insulator denoted a bulk reduction of voltage and electric field when the broken of
the shed in the insulator was near the electrode.
2. In HV string insulator with 10 units of porcelain insulator, the potential distribution experienced the most
diminutive value when the broken porcelain insulator were located in the string near the ground. In
addition, the potential distribution average were the least when the broken and perfect insulator were
arranged alternately in the string.
3. Consequently, the investigation of electric field distribution has shown that a hulking strength of average
when the broken insulator was ascertain near the ground when assimilated to the string insulator without
any broken insulator.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors express their sincere gratitude to Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) for the
use of facilities and equipment supports.
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BIOGRAPHIES OF AUTHORS
Hanan Rosli was born and raised in Sungai Petani, Kedah, Malaysia on January 24, 1994. After
completing high school in MARA Junior Science College (MJSC) Kepala Batas (2011), she went
to Kedah Matriculation College for a year and pursue her study in Bachelor of Electrical
Engineering (Hons) in UTHM, Johor (2017). Her research interest is more focus in high voltage
insulation field.
Nordiana Azlin Othman was born in Johor, Malaysia on January 19, 1986. She received Diploma
in Electrical Communication and B.Eng in Electrical Engineering from Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia (UTM) respectively in 2007 and 2010. She completed her PhD in Space Charge
Distirbution at Institute of High Voltage and High Current (IVAT) in Faculty of Electrical
Engineering, UTM. Her research interest includes the detection and diagnostics of partial
discharge and space charge in insulation for condition monitoring.
Nor Akmal Mohd Jamail is a lecturer of Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia since 2008. She
received the Bachelor degree in Electrical Engineering from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in
2005, M.Eng in Power System from Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia in 2007 and Ph.D. in
High Voltage Engineering from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, in 2015. Her research interests
include condition monitoring of polymer nanocomposite insulation for HV purpose, dielectrics and
electrical insulation. She is registered with the Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM).
Muhammad Nafis Ismail was born on 1982 in Johor, Malaysia. He received B.Eng in Electrical
Engineering fron Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in 2005. He previously worked as an
Electrical Engineer at BQE Engineering from 2005 to 2007 and currently work as an Electrical
Instructor at University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia.
Potential and Electric Field Characteristics of Broken Porcelain Insulator (H. Rosli)