Analysis of Electrical Characteristics of Composite Insulators with the Presence of Optimum Layer of ZnO Microvaristors

Abstract

The electric field distribution of insulator surface is nonuniform, and the maximum electric field is visible around two terminals of the insulator. Using a microvaristor layer is one of the methods of field control that can reduce the electric field stresses to prevent an extension of discharges on the insulator surface and a complete flashover caused by the subsequent development of arcing. This study targets the effect of zinc oxide (ZnO) microvaristors on the electric field distribution along the contaminated and clean composite insulators that have been investigated. In addition, the impact of the insertion of microvaristor layers on the critical flashover voltage (CFO) of the insulators through a mathematical formula has been presented for the first time. The estimation of electric field distribution is conducted through finite element method (FEM) on a 400 kV insulator using COMSOL Multiphysics, in which the optimal dimensions of the microvaristor layer were obtained using the accelerated particle swarm optimization (APSO) algorithm. Then, for the first time, the analysis of the influence of the ZnO insertion on the transient performance of the insulator, i.e., the outage rate of the network, is performed in EMTP software for the insulator with the optimized insertion of the microvaristor layer. Modelling techniques were used to simulate the components of a transmission network according to the valid models. Finally, by setting different values for CFO, Monte Carlo simulation, and linking EMTP and MATLAB software, the lightning flashover rate (LFOR) and the failure risk (F.R.) of the different insulator models are calculated. It is shown that the proposed method reduces the maximum electric field of the inside and outside of the insulator, which in turn leads to a reduction in the outage rate of the power network and the insulation risk of the insulator, and an increase in CFO of the insulator.