Electric Power Systems Research 78 (2008) 19141921

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Electric Power Systems Research

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/epsr

The pollution ashover on high voltage insulators

Muhsin Tunay Gencoglu , Mehmet Cebeci
Firat University, Engineering Faculty, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Elazig, Turkey

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 13 March 2006
Received in revised form 23 March 2008
Accepted 24 March 2008
Available online 6 May 2008
Keywords:
Insulator
Pollution ashover
Pollution resistance
Flashover voltage
Insulator equivalent model

a b s t r a c t
The pollution ashover, observed on insulators used in high voltage transmission, is one of the most
important problems for power transmission. It is a very complex problem due to several factors such as the
modeling difculties of complex shapes of the insulators, different pollution density at different regions,
non-homogeneous pollution distribution on the insulator surface and unknown effect of humidity on the
pollution. In the literature, some static and dynamic models were developed by making some assumptions
and omissions to predict the ashover voltages of polluted insulators. In this study, historical development
of insulator modeling was investigated and a dynamic arc model was proposed. For this purpose, scaled
shape of a concerned insulator was rstly partitioned into triangular elements, then nite element method
(FEM) was implemented and nally potential distribution on the insulator surface, variation of pollution
resistance and ashover voltage were determined. The computed ashover voltage values of the selected
string insulator have been compared to results from other research.
2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The ashover performance of insulators under polluted conditions is one of the guiding factors in the design and dimensioning
of insulation in power transmission lines [1]. Hence the ashover
on polluted transmission line insulators is a major problem which
has to be solved by power engineers.
The pollution ashover on high voltage insulators usually
involves the propagation of an arc root across the surface of an
electrolyte. However, ashover is achieved through two successive phases characterized as ignition and subsequent growth of
discharges under favorable conditions. The starting point of the
rst phase has long been attributed to the formation of scintillations in the form of glow and quasistable discharges across the dry
bands. These discharges grow under favorable conditions to form
stable arcs. There may be several such arcs burning stably under
the leading arc at different places on the insulator surface. The second phase is more important, but it is still unsolved. Though several
mechanisms, proposed by different researchers [24], seem to have
physical acceptance, none of them has yet received any denite
experimental evidence. During arc propagation the heat dissipated
in the series pollution layer in front of the discharges, signicantly
changes the characteristics of the pollution layer from one point to
another on the insulator surface.

Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mtgencoglu@rat.edu.tr (M.T. Gencoglu).
0378-7796/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.epsr.2008.03.019

Moreover, after ignition of the discharges across the dry bands,

the increasing leakage current causes additional variation and
nonuniformity in the series pollution layer [5]. The ashover of a
polluted insulator under AC voltage is the nal stage of the complicated mechanisms. According to Rahal [6], three cases of AC
ashover mechanisms can be distinguished:
1. Immediate ashover of the pollution band similar to the
ashover phenomenon under DC voltage;
2. ashovers on several consecutive voltage cycles in which case
the problem of the arc re-ignition is posed each time the current
passes through zero;
3. no ashover; that is the case in which, despite the heating effect
which may increase the conductivity of the surface layer, the
applied voltage is insufcient to induce a ashover.
The potential distribution on the insulator surface and around the
insulator must be determined and the resistance values of the
pollution layer must be calculated for investigation of pollution
problem. Moreover, the effects of pollution on change of the resistance and the ashover performance in the operation conditions
of the insulator must be investigated. The nite element method
(FEM) is commonly used for numerical investigation of electric eld
distribution on insulators. The surface of a zone-applied FEM is
dened by triangular or quadrilateral elements. The FEM provides
important advantages in ease of use, calculation speed and accuracy. The greatest disadvantage of FEM relates to the difculty in
building the geometrical data that describe the problem zone.

M.T. Gencoglu, M. Cebeci / Electric Power Systems Research 78 (2008) 19141921

1915

The development of ashover models of the polluted insulators

which can take the practical conditions into consideration is quite
difcult due to complication of ashover phenomenon [8]. However, a lot of studies have been made to set up the models which
can approximately show the critical characteristics (ashover voltage, critical length, leakage current, etc.) of the polluted insulators
[4,712]. Some assumptions have been made for the development
of these models. These assumptions are single dominant arc, uniform pollution distribution and uniform wetting.
The contents of this paper are organized as follows. In Section 2,
the physical pollution on the insulators and ashover equation are
given. In Section 3, historical development of insulator modeling
is investigated. A developed new dynamic arc model is introduced
and an application on an insulator is given in Section 4.
2. Surface ashover on insulators
High voltage outdoor insulators are exposed to pollution
because of salt in the regions near the sea and dust and chemical residues in the industrial regions. The pollution increases the
conductivity on the insulator surface, decreases the ashover performance of the insulator and sometimes causes the breakdowns
[13].
In service, an insulator will carry a resident contamination layer,
accumulated since its installation or the last cleaning operation.
This layer, which may uctuate as a result of depositing and purring
events, is more or less stable. Whatever their nature, the pollutants, when dry, are rather inactive. However, when exposed to
random occurrences like condensation, frost and onshore gales,
water and/or ionisable materials are added. This, depending on
the design of the insulator, will increase its surface conductivity
possibly leading to ashover and consequent power outages [14].
The distribution of surface conductivity on insulators in the eld is
usually very non-uniform. In this case the integral surface conductivity is not a proper parameter of contamination severity. For the
same integral surface conductivity the ashover voltage of the nonuniformly polluted insulator, can be either lower or higher than in
the case of uniform pollution [15].
2.1. The pollution ashover
Flashover on high voltage insulators due to natural pollution
reduces the ashover performance and reliability of overhead lines
in polluted areas. Pollution deposited on the insulator surface
becomes a conductive electrolyte when the insulator surface is wetted by rain or fog. This allows leakage currents to increase over the
insulator surface and decreases the electrical withstand voltage of
the insulator [16,17].
The pollution ashover consists of three main phases.

Fig. 1. The AR model of an insulator.

the form
E = E(i) = Ain

(1)

where A and n are called the discharge constants. The values of A

and n depend on the atmosphere in which the discharge burns.
For an arc burning in air, it is assumed that A = 63 and n = 0.7, E
being in V/cm and i in A. For an arc discharge burning in an atmosphere of steam, these values are estimated as A = 518 and n = 0.275,
respectively [16,18].
The voltage drop at the discharge roots basically depends upon
the current value and the pollution specic conductivity of the contact surface at the discharge roots. The pollution layer conductivity
is a function of the discharge root position and the size of the arc root
is a function of the local conductivity, i.e. Ve = Ve (x,i). It also depends
upon the form and polarity of the applied voltage. Although the discharge anode and cathode falls depend upon the state of the contact
surface, a constant numerical value for Ve is generally taken in the
theoretical calculations [19].
Rumeli [16] has proposed a model (AR model) the length of
which is equal to the leakage path of the given practical insulator (Fig. 1). The width of the AR model is variable and is dened
as
a() = D()

0L

(2)

If it is considered a single discharge starting from one of the electrodes of an insulator and its equivalent AR model is given in Fig. 2.
Where Lx is the length of pollution resistance in series with the
discharge. It will be assumed that the discharge extends along a
straight line on the polluted surface and there is no current passage between the discharge column and the surrounding pollution
layer except at the discharge root.

1. Formation of conductive pollution lm

(a) Covering of insulator surface with pollution layer.
(b) Wetting of pollution layer by effect of humidity.
2. Formation of pre-discharge on the surface of polluted insulator
(a) Formation of dry bands.
(b) Ignition of pre-discharge along dry bands.
3. Propagation of pre-discharge along the surface and short circuit.
If any one of these phases can be controlled completely, the
problem of pollution ashover is most certainly solved [16].
2.2. The ashover equation
The discharge considered in theoretical studies is generally an
arc type having a falling voltage gradient current characteristic of

Fig. 2. The ashover model. (a) Insulator and (b) ashover on the AR model of the
insulator.

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M.T. Gencoglu, M. Cebeci / Electric Power Systems Research 78 (2008) 19141921

The applied voltage V is

V = Vd + Vr

2.3. Evaluation of pollution severity

(3)

where Vd and Vr indicate the voltage drops across the discharge and
the series pollution region, respectively.
The discharge voltage drop Vd is
Vd = xE + Ve

(4)

where x is the discharge length, E is the discharge voltage gradient

and Ve is the discharge fall voltage which is the sum of the anode
and cathode voltage falls at the discharge roots.
The voltage drop across the discharge free region is
Vr = iR

(5)

where R is the resistance of the pollution region in series with the

discharge. R is basically controlled by the discharge length (x) and
the specic conductivity of the pollution layer. Specic conductivity
depends upon the temperature which changes as energy (w) is dissipated in this region, i.e. R = R(x, w) and dw = R i2 dt. It is thought
that R decreases with increasing x due to shortening of the length
of the series pollution region, i.e. R/x < 0.
Combining Eqs. (2)(4)
V = xE(i) + Ve (x, i) + iR(x, w) = f (x, i, w)

(6)

Eq. (6) is called the ashover equation [19]. This is the Obenaus
ashover equation for DC conditions. Rizk [7] added the criteria for
AC ashover.

Table 1
The levels of pollution severity and examples
Pollution level

I. Light

II. Medium

III. Heavy

IV. Very heavy

Examples of typical environments

Areas without industries and with low density of houses
equipped with heating plants
Areas with low density of industries or houses but
subjected to frequent winds and/or rainfall
Agricultural areasa
Mountainous areas
All these areas shall be situated at least 10 km to 20 km
from the sea and shall not be exposed to winds directly
from the seab
Areas with industries not producing particularly polluting
smoke and/or with average density of houses equipped
with heating plants
Areas with high density of houses and/or industries but
subjected to frequent winds and/or rainfall
Areas exposed fo wind from the sea but not too close to the
coast (at least several kilometres distant)b
Areas with high density of industries and suburbs of large
cities with high density of heating plants producing
pollution
Areas close to the sea or in any case exposed to relatively
strong winds from the seab
Areas generally of moderate extent, subjected to
conductive dusts and to industrial smoke producing
particularly thick conductive deposits
Areas generally of moderate extent, very close to the coast
and exposed to sea-spray or to very strong and polluting
winds from the sea
Desert areas, characterized by no rain for long periods,
exposed to strong winds carrying sand and salt, and
subjected to regular condensation

a
Use of fertilizers by spraying, or the burning of crop residues, can lead to a higher
pollution level due to dispersal by wind.
b
Distances from sea coast depend on the topography of the coastal area and on
the extreme wind conditions.

For the purposes of standardization, four levels of pollution are

qualitatively dened, from light pollution to very heavy pollution.
Table 1 gives, for each level of pollution, an approximate description of some typical corresponding environments. Other extreme
environmental conditions exist which merit further consideration,
e.g. snow and ice in heavy pollution, heavy rain and arid areas, etc.
[20].
The equivalent salt deposit density (ESDD) is the most commonly used method to characterize pollution quality and quantity
on the surface of insulators. The method determines the salt deposition density by washing down the insulator surface with a known
amount of water and then measuring the conductivity of the water.
A major disadvantage of the ESDD method is that the insulators
must be removed from the transmission line for an exact measurement [21]. Separately this method is labor intensive and is subject to
the experience level and attention to detail of the eld personnel
[22]. Determination of ESDD on insulators installed on transmission line towers is possible but it requires skilled personnel [21].
By denition, the density of ESDD equals an amount of sodium
chloride which, solved in water, will change waters conductivity
to the level equal to that resulting from the solution of polluted
deposits gathered from insulator surface divided by the insulators
surface area (mg/cm2 ) [23]. This method is generally used for calculating average pollution based on average density of soluble salt
[24].
3. Insulator equivalent models
An alternative to natural and articial pollution tests is to compute the ashover voltage of polluted insulators by making use
of theoretical models. It is desirable to assess the ashover performance of polluted insulators using analytical methods in order
to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for expensive test facilities and tedious and lengthy experiments. A common feature of
all these models is a simplied representation of a propagating arc
consisting of a partial arc in series with the resistance of the unbridged section of the polluted layer [8]. Several analytical studies
have been carried out in order to calculate ashover voltage of polluted insulators, however due to complex shapes of the insulators
and lack of computational facilities, sufciently precise analysis of
the phenomenon has not been possible [19].
One of the rst quantitative analysis of arcs on contaminated
surfaces was made by Obenaus [25,26]. Obenaus considered a at
model, composed by an arc of length in series with a resistance
representing the wet pollution layer and supplied by a constant
voltage. The rst analytical approach to the problem is a polluted
rectangular model with a uniform and time-invariant pollution lm
[2]. The most commonly accepted model of ashover of polluted
insulation was developed independently by German, Russian and
British [2729] research teams; it is based on the premise that a
surface discharge can extend if equality of stresses is present in the
discharge and in the unspanned section of polluted path. A similar
approach has been used with different coefcients in the arc characteristics [30]. It is also used the same approach to calculate the
ashover voltage of practical insulators which were represented by
the form factors and leakage lengths [31]. These studies have not
considered the time variation and nonuniformity of the pollution
lm.
Wilkins [9] has made an attempt to calculate the ashover
voltage of a uniformly polluted insulator. He has considered the
temperature variation in the pollution lm until the formation
of the rst dry band on the insulator surface. In this approach,
the insulator is represented by an equivalent rectangular (cylin-

M.T. Gencoglu, M. Cebeci / Electric Power Systems Research 78 (2008) 19141921

drical) model covered with a uniform pollution lm having hot

average surface conductivity [19]. For wide and narrow rectangular models, approximate analytical expressions have been
obtained for the pollution resistance as a function of the propagating discharge length [32]. The calculation of ashover voltages
of a rectangular model covered with uniform and non-uniform
and time-invariant pollution lms has been made [33,34]. It has
been shown that the discharge growth and thus the ashover
are signicantly controlled by the nonuniformity of pollution
layer.
Wilkins and Al-Baghdadi [3] have signaled the existence of a
current parallel to the arc column in the electrolyte on an Obenaus
type of model. Mercure and Drouet [35] have measured that current
intensity directly and shown that during the ashover of a channel of electrolyte, the zone where the discharge current transfer
towards the liquid takes place can spread over several centimeters.
Rizk [10] suggested a dynamic model using dimensional analysis. The method of dimensional analysis is applied to determine
ashover characteristics of polluted insulators. Recently, this analysis was used in the high voltage engineering for performance study
of different type insulator. Another AC model was proposed by
Claverie and Porcheron [36]. It is based on an empirical relationship
between the minimum arc re-ignition voltage and the arc current.
AR model has been introduced [16] which was dened in terms
of the leakage path and the corresponding radius of the given practical insulator. The AR model is a one-to-one model and effectively
represents the shape of a practical insulator. Jolly et al. [37] have
presented a model applicable to a discharge having parallel paths,
but its complexity and the large number of assumptions required
for its solution make it difcult to appraise.
A theoretical approach to calculate the ashover voltage of a
uniformly polluted model has been made [38]. In this study, the
dynamic behavior of the discharge growing on a polluted surface
has been examined. In the calculation of the critical voltage causing ashover, a similar analytical approach used [26], assuming a
uniform pollution lm, has been considered.
It has been shown [39] that the non-uniform distribution of
the pollution lm affected the ashover voltage and strict relation
existed between the ashover voltage, the peak leakage current and
the pollution layer conductivity. The effect of voltage form on the
propagating discharge has been investigated [40]. It has been found
that the same arc gradient current characteristic (E = AIn ) could be
used taking different values for the discharge constants A and n (for
AC: A = 68, n = 0.7).
A simplied model for AC ashover estimation of polluted insulators is suggested in [41]. In this study, the effects of arc extinction
and re-ignition on the discharge growth are considered together
with the internal impedance of the AC source. The variations of
conductivity of pollution lm and temperature on an insulator surface caused by the leakage current have been studied [42]. The AC
ashover voltages of a practical insulator are calculated considering
a plane model which has an elliptic shape, having the same surface
area and the same leakage length of the given insulator [43].
Astorga and Do Prado [44] have suggested that the pollution
layer has a denite thickness and the thickness is not xed. They
have shown that dynamic behavior of ashover phenomenon can
be more effectively analyzed. The ashover equation and a dynamic
arc model have been used to investigate analytically the relation of
the leakage current to the surface conductivity and the arc length
[12]. Considering instantaneous changes of the discharge parameters, Dhahbi-Megriche and Beroual [8] have developed a new
dynamic model which computes variation of current against the
time, the arc resistance, the arc propagation velocity and ashover
time for applied voltage, geometry of the insulator and pollution
severity. A mathematical model was applied for the calculation

1917

of the dielectric strength of the insulator under the determined

non-uniform distribution. The surface of the insulator is divided
into nite elements, uniformly contaminated, across the creepage
length [45,46].

4. Computation of AC ashover voltages

An insulator with its partial arc, along with a layer of pollution
is modeled as a discharge in series with a resistance [7]. The arc
voltage gradient, Earc and the pollution voltage gradient Ep are calculated as instantly and checked for the arc propagation criterion
(Ep > Earc ) for a given voltage and surface conductivity. If it is satised, the arc propagates for that voltage and conductivity, then a
ashover has occurred. Otherwise, the change in arc resistance is
calculated, using new quantities and the calculations are repeated.
The calculation of pollution gradient requires the instantaneous
pollution resistance, which in turn is calculated from the form factor, whose value depends on the geometry, layer temperature and
physical state. Depending upon the length of the arc, the form factor
varies and so do the other quantities, thus utilizing the inuence
of geometry of the insulator in the ashover process. The insulator
is divided into a number of zones for numerical calculations. These
zones were simulated with various levels of pollution in the case of
the uniform pollution distribution study.
The pollution severity in the present investigation, expressed in
terms of rp , is converted to surface conductivity  S in the form
S =

F
rp L

(7)

where

L
F=

dL
d(L)

(8)

F is a form factor of the insulator, and  S is the surface conductivity

in S [47].
The leakage current (IL ) during an arc free period can be calculated by
IL (t) =

V (t)
RL

(9)

Fig. 3. The meshed case by triangular elements of AR half-model belong to 7K3

insulator.

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M.T. Gencoglu, M. Cebeci / Electric Power Systems Research 78 (2008) 19141921

The surface resistance is calculated from the form factor, as

1
RL =


L

dl
2r(l)

(10)

where, V(t) is the sinusoidal line to neutral voltage,  is the layer

conductivity in ohm/cm, l is the distance from upper electrode
(cup) on the insulator surface, r(l) is the radius of the insulator at
a distance of l from the upper electrode, L is the insulator leakage
length.
The surface conductivity is calculated from these equations
using the leakage current and line voltage. The surface conductivity is a measure of pollution severity. The ESDD is approximately
proportional to the surface conductivity. The time variation of the
conductivity values permits the continuous estimation of actual
pollution severity on an insulator surface [12].

In this study, a computer program is developed for the computation of AC ashover voltages of the polluted insulators. In the
program, rstly, potential distributions and eld strength on the
insulator surface and around it have been computed using FEM
and eld strength values have been determined along the leakage
length on the insulator surface [48]. Then, the values of the pollution resistance in series with the arc have been computed using AR
model. Potentials on the AR model were used for calculation of variation at pollution resistance. For this reason, this solution zone has
been meshed by triangular elements (Fig. 3) and initial conditions
have been applied to cap and pin of the insulator. Finally, the values
of potential and electric eld strength, the pollution resistance in
series with the arc and ashover voltage have been computed using
the computer program.
A generalized owchart of the computer program is shown in
Fig. 4. Before the program initialization, an initial le which contains different parameters was prepared. These parameters are

Fig. 4. Flowchart of the computer program.

M.T. Gencoglu, M. Cebeci / Electric Power Systems Research 78 (2008) 19141921

1919

Fig. 7. The computed ashover voltage values for 7K3 insulator.

Fig. 5. 7K3 insulator.

diameter, leakage length, skirt number and prole of the insulator,

the pollution density of the region, atmospheric conditions, voltage
level and voltage type, etc.
The application, initially reads the nodes on the leakage length
and their coordinates. The coordinates of all the nodes along the
insulator surface are obtained and these coordinates are arranged
for the FEM solution. Then, the following parameters are respectively read from the le: the coordinates of all the nodes belong
to the nite element meshing, the three node numbers for each
triangle (element), the nodes which denes the function and their
potentials, the nodes on the leakage length and their coordinates,
the dielectric constants of each element, and the coordinates belong
to boundary points describing the insulator. Afterwards, dielectric constant of the air, dielectric constant of the pollution layer,
conductivity, frequency, etc. are assigned by the user. Finally, the
potentials of all the nodes are computed. After owing current from
the pollution layer and eld strengths of all the nodes are computed
difference of eld strength between every two nodes is calculated
along the leakage length. If the arc occurs between any of the two
nodes, the potential values of these nodes are computed. The node
numbers and potential values of the nodes between which the arc
occurs are added to series set up by known nodes potentials. Then
the application returns to the section where the potentials of the
nodes have obtained and the potential value is increased. Checking
eld strength values between the nodes the application examines
whether the arc occurs or not. If the arc occurs between all the
nodes, the ashover occurs along the insulator surface.
The cross-section of the cap and pin insulators (7K3) each unit
has 185 mm of height, 288 mm of diameter and 304 mm of leakage

length, is given in Fig. 5. The nite element meshing for the insulator
is shown in Fig. 6. 7K3 insulator which has seven units is a string
insulator. All the computations have been done for a seven-unit
string.
Fig. 6 shows how the program simulated a pollution layer of
nite thickness using meshed triangular elements. Flashover voltages were computed for different surface conductivities of the
pollution layer using the computer program.
When the new dynamic arc model is obtained in this study, it
has been assumed that the partial discharges occur on the leakage
path of the insulator and these discharges increase and they cover
the leakage length completely and so the ashover forms. Furthermore, it has been assumed that the pollution layer on the insulator
surface has a homogeneous structure. Additionally, the variations of
temperature on the pollution layer during the discharge and effect
of humidity were neglected.
The effect of voltage form on the propagating discharge has been
investigated by Nosseir et al. [40]. They have found that the same
arc gradient current characteristics (E = AIn ) could be used taking
different values for the discharge constants A and n (for AC: A = 68,
n = 0.7) [19]. Considering the discharge on the insulator surface
ignites in the air, if AIn (V/cm) is the discharge voltage gradient, A
and n are 63 and 0.76, respectively [16,30]. In this study, xed values of A = 63 and n = 0.76 were used for computation of AC ashover
voltages.
Using the developed dynamic model in this study, the variation
of computed AC ashover voltage against surface conductivity for
7K3 insulator for a seven-unit string is given in Fig. 7. The computations were performed for one unit of the insulator. Then, AC
ashover voltage values for a seven-unit string were found. It is seen

Fig. 6. The nite element mesh generation for 7K3 insulator.

Fig. 8. Comparison of ashover voltages for 7K3 insulator (a, Rumeli [16]; b: Cron
[16]; c: Wilkins [9]; d: Sundararajan [12]; e: dynamic model).

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M.T. Gencoglu, M. Cebeci / Electric Power Systems Research 78 (2008) 19141921

Fig. 11. The computed ashover voltage values for U40BL insulator.

Fig. 9. U40BL insulator.

from Fig. 7 that if the surface conductivity increases the ashover

voltage decreases. But this decline is not linear.
The comparison of computed AC ashover voltages using the
dynamic model with the theoretical or experimental results of

other researchers for 7K3 insulator is given in Fig. 8. The difference

of the ashover voltages between results of the dynamic model and
results of other researchers is excessive in small values (510 S)
of surface conductivity. Because some results are theoretical, some
results are experimental and some results are obtained from the
static model. But, this difference is smaller for greater values of
surface conductivity. But in spite of this, the difference is acceptable.
Each unit of the cross-section of the cap and pin insulator
(U40BL) has 110 mm of height, 175 mm of diameter and 185 mm
of leakage length, and is given in Fig. 9. The nite element meshing
for the insulator is shown in Fig. 10. U40BL insulator which has six
units is a string insulator. All the computations have been done for
a six-unit string.
Using the developed dynamic model in this study, the variation
of computed AC ashover voltage against surface conductivity for
U40BL insulator for a six-unit string is given in Fig. 11. The computations were performed for one unit of the insulator. Then, AC
ashover voltage values for a six-unit string were found. Dry power
frequency average ashover voltage is 55 kV and wet power frequency average ashover voltage is 30 kV for U40BL insulator by
experiment [49]. It appears that the ashover voltage of U40BL
insulator is about 57 kV and 31 kV for 5 S (no signicant pollution) and 25 S (heavy pollution), respectively in Fig. 11. It can be
seen that dry ashover voltage is bigger than wet ashover voltage.
5. Conclusion

Fig. 10. The nite element mesh generation for U40BL insulator.

The pollution ashover problem on high voltage insulators in

the polluted regions has not yet been solved completely. In order
to solve this problem, a lot of researchers have tried to represent
the insulators with the static models for a long time. The occurred
partial discharge after the formation of the dry band is considered
as static at the static models. But, the static models do not consider the effects on the model parameters of the discharges on the
insulator surface. In order to eliminate this drawback, the dynamic
models were developed in recent years. Because the ashover is
a very rapid phenomenon, the dynamic models which consider
the effects of the instantaneous changes in the discharge parameters represents the ashover phenomenon better than the static
models.
The ashover voltages of a polluted high voltage insulator were
computed using the developed new dynamic model in this study.
Thus, the difculties during the experiments were eliminated. It
was shown that the theoretically computed ashover voltage values using the dynamic model are quite similar to the experimental
and theoretical results of other researches. Using the new dynamic
model, the ashover voltages of string insulators can be computed
easily, the ashover characteristics of different insulators can be

M.T. Gencoglu, M. Cebeci / Electric Power Systems Research 78 (2008) 19141921

compared and so the selection of the insulator types which will be

used in the polluted regions can be done.
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