Comparative Analysis of Polimeric Insulators Under

Pollution and External Defect Using the Finite

Element Method
Antonio Francisco Leite Neto Edson Guedes da Costa Jalberth Fernandes de Araújo
Electrical Engineering Graduate Program Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
Federal University of Campina Grande Federal University of Campina Grande Federal University of Campina Grande
Campina Grande, Brazil Campina Grande, Brazil Campina Grande, Brazil
antonio.leite@ee.ufcg.edu.br edson@dee.ufcg.edu.br jalberth@dee.ufcg.edu.br

Bruno Albuquerque Dias Luan da Silva Balbino

Electrical Engineering Graduate Program Graduation in Electrical Engineering
Federal University of Campina Grande Federal University of Campina Grande
Campina Grande, Brazil Campina Grande, Brazil
bruno.dias@ee.ufcg.edu.br luan.balbino@ee.ufcg.edu.br

Abstract— This work presents an evaluation of electric field The calculation and measurement of electric field are
and electric potential in polymeric insulators under different auxiliary tools in identification and detection of the presence
operating conditions. The conditions considered were: intact of possible irregularities in polymeric insulators. The presence
insulator, with the presence of an external defect and under of defects in constitution of insulator can cause the occurrence
effect of pollution. Thus, two 138 kV polymeric insulators from of partial or superficial discharges and corona, depending on
different manufacturers were modeled with the aid of its intensity and location. Thereby, predicting electric field
multiphysics simulation software that uses Finite Element strengths and their effects through simulations is important,
Method. A thin conductive layer was modeled on the surface of since techniques for monitoring polymeric insulators are
the insulators, in order to investigate the influence of pollution
expensive and may present inaccurate diagnoses.
on their electrical performance. The external defect was
represented by a cavity deep enough to reach the interface Therefore, this work aims to evaluate impacts of the
between the coating and the core. In the simulations carried out insertion of pollution and external defects (exposed core) in
on polluted insulators, it was detected that the insulator has a 138 kV polymeric insulators, evaluating two topologies from
resistive characteristic, with low intensity electric field peaks. different manufacturers. With this, it will be possible to
While the analysis of defective insulators showed that electric establish parameters (electric field, electric potential and
field suffers distortions, the intensity of this distortions was leakage current) to perform an analysis of insulators under
sufficient to cause air ionization, localized disruptive discharge
different operating conditions.
and progressive degradation of the polymeric material. From the
results obtained for each insulator, it was possible to observe II. MATERIAL AND METHODS
electrical characteristics of the two topologies of polymeric
insulators in view of application of different operating conditions A. Insulators
Computer simulations using COMSOL Multiphysics®
Keywords—polymeric insulators, Finite Element Method,
were carried out in two suspension insulators, 138 kV voltage
electric field, electric potential.
class. Insulators with two types of polymeric coating were
I. INTRODUCTION considered, namely: High Temperature Vulcanized Silicone
Rubber (HTV) and Room Temperature Vulcanized Silicone
One of main factors in quality and reliability of Rubber (RTV). Table I shows the nomenclature that was used
transmission and distribution of electrical energy is related to to represent each type of insulator, as well as the description of
the proper functioning of electrical insulators, so that condition its coating.
and operation of these components is the focus of several
studies in electrical systems, especially with regard to TABLE I. DESCRIPTION OF INSULATOR USED IN SIMULATIONS
polymeric insulators [1-3]. Insulator Name Voltage Polymeric Coating
Since the 1980s, polymeric insulators have been gradually Insulator 1 138 kV HTV
replacing ceramic insulators (glass and porcelain) due to Insulator 2 138 kV RTV
several advantages, such as lower weight and cost. However,
Each insulator has its own shape, differing in terms of
disadvantages such as difficult detection of defects inside and
number of sheds, creepage distance, type of terminal and
the lack of information related to the aging process of
distance between phase and ground. Fig. 1 shows the insulators
polymeric materials, encourage the need for in-depth
modeled in 2D.
investigations to reduce the possibility of component failure
[4].
Currently, there are several techniques for inspection,
monitoring and diagnosis of polymeric insulators, such as:
visual inspection, leakage current measurement, ultraviolet
radiation, infrared radiation and electric field [3].

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 The variation in intensity of pollution was implemented to
allow analysis of place, exposure time and ambient humidity.
The constants that characterize each level of pollution (without
pollution, light, medium and high pollution) are shown in
Table III.
TABLE III. PHYSICAL CONSTANTS THAT CHARACTERIZE POLLUTION
Fig. 1. Polymeric insulator profile (a) Insulator 1 and (b) Insulator 2 LEVELS
B. Simulation Pollution Type Permittivity Conductivity (S/m)
The computational platform COMSOL Multiphysics® Without Pollution 1 1 x 10-15
was used in order to apply Finite Element Method (FEM) in Light 15 1 x 10-6
study of electric field distribution, electric potential and Medium 15 1 x 10-5
leakage current. Therefore, in the simulation procedure, it was Heavy 15 1,5 x 10-4
initially necessary to define the geometric domain of test
Source: [7]
object (polymeric insulator). The domain was defined as 2D
with revolution geometry. In order to analyze the effect of electric field in an insulator
characterized with a defect (exposed core), a cavity was made
In second moment of simulation procedure, physical
in the insulator coating with a depth (3 mm) sufficient to reach
properties that constitute the insulator were defined, as well as
the core, leaving it exposed. As it is a 2D geometry of
the environment in which it is inserted. The specifications of
revolution, the cavity will surround the entire core in a 360°
materials used in the simulation and their respective physical
rotation, as shown in Fig. 3.
parameters are shown in Table II. The insulators used are made
of different coating materials and values for electrical
permittivity are shown in Table II.
TABLE II. PHYSICAL CONSTANTS OF THE INSULATOR MATERIAL
Conductivity
Region Permittivity
(S/m)
(A)
Core 7.2 10-14
Hardware 105 107
Air 1 10-15
Insulator 1 Insulator 2
Coating 10-15
4.3(A) 3.45(B) Fig. 3. Drilled cavity and its 3D representation
Source: [5](A) and [6](B) Nine cases were simulated, in which the thickness of defect
Subsequently, in simulation procedures, it was necessary and its position were varied. Cases are shown in Table IV,
to define the boundary conditions. These conditions were where Φ (mm) corresponds to the thickness of the cavity made
applied in order to define the value of variables in certain and P (mm) is the positioning of the cavity in relation to phase
regions of the domain. Thus, the voltage applied to the phase terminal.
terminal was approximately 112.67 kV (peak value of the TABLE IV. EXTERNAL DEFECT SETTINGS ON INSULATOR 1 AND 2
phase voltage), in order to ascertain the worst case to which
Case Φ (mm) P (mm) Case Φ (mm) P (mm)
the insulator is subjected.
Intact Absent Absent 05 2 20
Finally, the domain was discretized into triangular 01 1 10 06 3 20
elements, and mesh was refined in regions of interest. 02 2 10 07 1 30
Once the mesh used was defined, it was possible to obtain 03 3 10 08 2 30
results regarding electric field and electric potential during the 04 1 20 09 3 30
intact insulator with use of electric current physics, available
in the COMSOL Multiphysics® simulation environment. To III. RESULTS
obtain other results, it was necessary to model the external The results were obtained and analyzed using graphs that
defect and the pollution layer. correspond to electric field and potential distributions
The pollution was represented by a 1 mm thick conductive determined under a red longitudinal line drawn on the surface
layer applied to the surface of the entire polymeric coating. The of the insulator, as shown in Fig. 4.
layer was modeled using technical drawing software and can
be seen in Fig. 2.

Fig. 2. Representation of the conductive layer in part of the Insulator 2 Fig. 4. Longitudinal line drawn in (a) Insulator 1 e (b) Insulator 2

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 A. Pollution
In this section, results of computer simulations for electric
field, electric potential and leakage current will be presented,
when the insulator is subjected to the application of a pollution
layer. In Fig. 5, the behavior of electrical potential in Insulators
1 and 2 can be observed along the longitudinal line that starts
at phase terminal and ends at earth terminal.

Fig. 6. Electric field along the longitudinal line

In Fig. 6, Insulator 2 has a greater number of regions in

which electric field is intensive, despite not having great
amplitudes. Thus, Insulator 2 presents 41 peaks of electric field
throughout its structure, whereas Insulator 1 presents 11 peaks
of electric field. The number of electrical field peaks is in
agreement with number of fins that insulator has. Beyond that,
Insulator 2 has greater intensities of electric field, passing in
some points of 6 kV / cm, while in Insulator 1, the electric field
value does not exceed 5 kV / cm.
Because it is an insulator with a conductive layer on its
surface, it was also necessary to determine the value of leakage
current to earth and the power dissipated by the insulators, as
can be seen in Table V. It is worth noting that determination of
values of power was given considering the leakage current
with a sine waveform.
TABLE V. PEAK LEAKAGE CURRENT AND DISSIPED POWER BY
INSULATOR UNDER POLLUTION

Fig. 5. Electric potential along the longitudinal line Insulator 1 Insulator 2

Pollution
Type Power Power
In both cases, it appears that the variation of coating Current (A)
(W)
Current (A)
(W)
material does not provide significant changes in electrical Light 5,38 x 10-6 0,43 4,69 x 10-6 0,37
potential throughout the insulator. Medium 5,38 x 10-5 4,31 4,69 x 10-5 3,74
In addition, results of intact and polluted insulators show Heavy 8,09 x 10-4 64,29 7,04 x 10-4 56,07
the resistive performance of pollution layer. The presence of Intact 4,92 x 10-11 3,96 x 10-6 4,92 x 10-11 3,92 x 10-6
pollution causes an increase in electrical potential throughout
the insulator, taking on a characteristic that refers to linearity. In intact case, in both insulators, current and power showed
This transfer of potential through pollution layer can very low values and consistent with normal operation of
compromise the insulating capacity of insulators. Furthermore, insulator. With presence of pollution, current increased
the increase in pollution did not cause variation in potential significantly, reaching the value of 809 µA in Insulator 1 and
along insulators, maintaining same pattern and intensity for the 704 µA in Insulator 2.
three levels of simulated pollution. The power results demonstrate that the intensification of
When considering electric field results, it was observed pollution leads to an increase in power dissipation or heating
that as the pollution increases, it also maintains the same of insulator and, consequently, increasing probability of
pattern and intensity in polluted insulators, as can be seen in degradation of polymeric material if the local temperature
Fig. 6. exceeds 200ºC [1]. The current and power values are intensive
in Insulator 1, as it has a shorter creepage distance.
B. External Defect
The Fig. 7 shows the behavior of electric field for all nine
cases of simulated defects in Insulator 1 and 2. It is worth
noting that electric field intensities consider longitudinal line
(Fig. 4) with sufficient dimension to reach the first shed of
Insulator 1 and the third shed of Insulator 2, with the same
length for both.

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 The intensities of electrical potential and leakage current
were not presented in this section, as they present a
performance similar to the intact case reported in the previous
section.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this work, computer simulations for calculating electric
field, electric potential and leakage current were carried out in
intact polymeric insulators, with external defects and under
effect of pollution. The results obtained were compared
between two insulator topologies from different manufacturers.
With the results of electric field, electric potential, leakage
current and power, for intact cases, they show that the
insulating characteristic of Insulators 1 and 2, with low
intensities of the quantities evaluated along insulator and with
values that do not compromise its electrical performance.
The results of insulators with and without pollution showed
that distribution of potential that once was insulating, started
to have a resistive characteristic, compromising insulating
capacity of insulator. In terms of leakage current, it was found
to growth with increasing pollution, causing a raise in power
dissipation or heating, which could cause degradation of
dielectric material.
When insulator has a defect in its structure, electric field
analyzes reveal that the closer the cavity is to phase terminal,
Fig. 7. Electric field along the longitudinal line for all defects the greater electric field intensities, with values sufficient to
cause ionization and localized electrical rupture.
In Fig. 7, intensities of electric field at the edge of the
cavity (defect) can be seen. When considering that 26 kV / cm Finally, it is possible to state that the topology of the
[8] is the limit value of the electric field for the occurrence of insulator with a greater creepage distance provides lower
ionization process under standardized atmospheric conditions values of leakage current and dissipated power. The polymeric
and uniform electric field, it appears that Insulator 1 and coating with a higher permittivity causes lower values of
Insulator 2 presented electric field intensity capable to promote electric field.
the occurrence of localized discharges, with five locations
(defects) in Insulator 1 and six locations (defects) in Insulator ACKNOWLEDGMENT
2. The authors would like to thank the support of COPELE,
UFCG, Capes and CHESF.
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