Contamination Characteristics of Typical Transmission Line Insulators by Wind Tunnel Simulation

Abstract

In this paper, contamination distribution results on 4 insulators surface as well as NSDD (non-soluble deposit density) in different test conditions were obtained. Further, contamination performances of 4 insulators were compared. Finally, contamination process was simulated by the Eulerian multiphase model based on computational fluid dynamics. Research results showed that: contamination performances of insulators were obviously affected by insulator structures, wind speed and RH (relative humidity). Contamination distribution is non-uniform on 4 insulators. Contamination degree of 4 insulators on leeward surface is greater than that of windward surface. NSDDB (NSDD of bottom surface) of disc shaped insulators is higher than NSDDT (NSDD of top surface), the opposite is true for shed shaped insulators. Besides, the saturated contamination characteristics of 4 insulators are different in saturated NSDD and saturated time. Wind speed and RH both have great influence on the insulators contamination. The increase of wind speed and RH will lead to higher NSDD. However, it is noteworthy that RH has little impact on NSDD of composite insulators. In addition, the numerical simulation based on computational fluid dynamics and experimental results in wind tunnel are in good agreement. So it is suggested that numerical simulation can be used to test the anti-pollution performance of insulators with different structures in different environments.