Comparative Analysis of Electric Field and Potential Distributions over Porcelain and Glass Insulators Using Finite Element Method

Abstract

This paper investigates the electrical performance of outdoor porcelain and glass insulators when subjected to an 11 kV AC voltage. The insulators are modeled in two dimensions, and the analysis of COMSOL software is used for the finite element simulations. The electric field and voltage distribution in the vicinity of the insulator surfaces were computed and examined. Comparative studies of field and equipotential lines for the insulators are presented under both dry clean and wet polluted conditions. The pollution layer over the insulator surfaces are assumed to be uniform with 0.5 mm thickness. The simulation results show that the field distribution of porcelain and glass insulators were obviously depended on the contamination conditions. The critical of high field regions on both surfaces were identified and the effect of the pollution on the electric field distribution was revealed. The results also confirmed that porcelain insulator has slightly higher field distribution near the high voltage end compared with the glass surface.