Analytical Model to Predict Pollution Flashover Voltages of Porcealin Disc Insulators

Abstract

In this paper, a new mathematical model is proposed to predict the pollution flashover voltages of porcelain disc insulators subject to AC voltages. The pollution flashover mechanism is most commonly influenced by the parameters such as applied voltage, pollution resistance, arc length and arc constants. The proposed model is developed by establishing the relation between the above said parameters using the dimensional analysis. The Ayrton’s arc constants A and n used in the model are estimated using optimization of the published experimental data of arc voltage and arc current of a real insulator. For a number of insulators of different geometrical dimensions, the pollution flashover voltages are computed using the new proposed model and are compared with experimental and analytical results of other researchers of the same insulators. It is found that the computed results are in good accordance with the experimental and analytical results of other researchers.