Computation of Electric Fields and Study of Optimal Corona Suppression for Bushing-Type Insulators

Using the Runge-Kutta and Newton-Raphson methods, the electric fileds on the bushing-type insulator surface covered partly by a corona-suppression semiconductor coating with a field-dependent resistivity have been computed for semiconductors having various resistivityfield ield (p-E) characteristics. The field distribution along the insulator surface is strongly dependent on the p-E characteristic and the extension of the semiconductor coating as well as the frequency of the operating voltages. By assigning the highest field along the insulator surface to be the critical field for the onset of corona discharges (or the breakdown strength of air or other medium), the corona inception voltage of the insulators can be evaluated easily. Thus, by the comparison of the field distribution curves, it is easy to determine the type of the p-E characteristic and the extension of the semiconductor coating for optimal corona suppression. For bushing-type insulators, the computed results show that the semiconductors with p = poexp(-BE) or p * pO[2 - exp(aE)], where po, and a are constants, could give optimal corona suppression. The optimal choice depends on the physical parameters of the insulator, the extension of the semiconductor coating and the frequency of the operating voltages, and therefore the constants pO and or a have to be determined for individual cases. In general, for optimal al corona suppression po should decrease with increasing frequency and length of the insulator surface; and or a should increase with increasing length of the insulator surface.