Effects of Disc Insulator Type and Corona Ring on Electric Field and Voltage Distribution over 230-kV Insulator String by Numerical Method

Insulator strings with several material and profiles are very common in overhead transmission lines. However, the electric field and voltage distribution of insulator string is uneven which may easily lead to corona, insulators’ surface deterioration and even flashover. So the calculation of the electric field and voltage distribution along them is a very important factor in the operation time. Besides, no remarkable endeavor regarding insulator material and profile and their impacts upon the electric field and voltage distribution has been made so far. In this paper several 230-kV insulator strings with different porcelain and glass units were simulated using 3-D FEM based software, and their electric fields and voltage distributions were calculated and compared together, to investigate the effect of insulator types on these quantities. Tower and conductors were included in all simulations and also the effect of corona ring on voltage and electric field distribution over insulator strings with different insulator types was investigated. Reported results show the dependency of voltage distribution to insulator material and profile.