Simulation based electric stress estimation on silicone rubber polymeric insulators under multi-environmental conditions

Abstract

Polymeric insulators lack intermediate metal elements, resulting in non-uniform electric fields along their surface, which are further exacerbated by environmental stresses such as pollution and moisture. Researchers focused on determining the critical stresses in the polymeric insulator, paying particular attention to uniform pollution and moisture. There are, however, few studies that investigate non-uniform pollution and combinations of environmental stresses, which could influence electric field distributions. In this work, complex multi-stress environmental conditions are modeled and simulated considering pollution of different thicknesses and conductivities, water droplets of different shapes and sizes, and dry bands of varying widths and locations. This paper analyzes an 11 kV polymeric insulator's potential and electric field distribution using finite element simulations, which can be applied to any high voltage insulator under the aforementioned contaminated conditions.