Leakage current based thermal modeling of glass disc insulator surface

Abstract

The stability of transmission lines relies on the health of the insulators, such as glass string insulators, which may occasionally flashover during an overvoltage. The likelihood of flashover increases notably when the glass insulator is wrapped by a wet contaminant layer. In this paper a study of the surface thermal profile of glass disc insulators insulation had been carried out for both clean and polluted surfaces. A finite-element simulation with time dependent model was carried out using COMSOL Multiphysics software. The variation of the insulator surface temperature with applied voltage as well as with pollution layer thickness is explained. The results illustrate the significant effect of pollution conductivity on heat propagate along the surface of the glass insulators with the increase higher voltages’ magnitudes. Study of the aging level impact on a steady state thermal for glass insulation surface is also carried out.