Faulty insulators could appear in the HV transmission line insulator string under the comprehensive effect of electrical, mechanical and environmental factors and they can be detected according to the space potential and electric field distribution variation characteristics around the insulator string. Finite Element Method (FEM) was used to study the potential and electric field distributions of a 220kV suspension insulator string contained a zero-value insulator in windage condition, comparing with a fine insulator string. The results show that the variation of the space potential and electric field distributions of insulator string is the same as that under no windage condition. The curve of synthetic electric field along the central axis around the good insulator string is U-shape. The 10th and 11th insulators from the high-voltage end are the sensitive insulators where the distortion ratio of synthetic field strength is higher than 3%, when a faulty insulator is in the string. This result can provide preferences for the online detection of faulty insulators.