IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation Vol. 23 No.

6, December 1988 1025

Improvement of the dc Voltage

Insulation Efficiency of Suspension
Insulators under Contaminated
Conditions

K. Naito, K. Morita, Y. Hasegawa, and

T. Imakoma
NGK Insulators, LTD. Japan

ABSTRACT
This paper describes the results of the research and develop-
ment work on a suspension-type insulator having a dc contam-
ination withstand voltage 1.25 to 1 . 3 ~higher than that of the
standard dc fog insulator by using the fog-withstand method or
the clean-fog method. Also described are the withstand volt-
age characteristics of the suspension insulator contaminated
with soluble materials and non uniform contamination, simu-
lating the natural field conditions. Described finally are design
criteria taking these results into account.

INTRODUCTION application, such as upgrading of a n existing dc trans-

mission line. Five types of new insulators were designed
and prepared for the evaluation of their dc contamina-
HE string length of insulators for a dc transmission tion performance.
T line will be substantially decided by its insulation
performance under contaminated conditions since the Studies were also made on two technical subjects
magnitude of internal overvoltages on a dc line are fairly relating t o the application of the insulator strings using
low compared with those on an ac line. Thus, insulators the newly developed dc insulators. One is a study about
having a superior insulation ability under contaminated the effect of the kind of soluble materials in the con-
conditions will be effective in minimizing the insulator taminant on the dc contamination performance. Such a
string length. We developed a special dc suspension in- study is important because, especially in inland areas,
sulator which has a n insulation strength 1.25 t o 1 . 3 ~ soluble materials other than NaCl are dominant in the
higher than our standard dc fog insulator under con- contaminant. T h e other is a study on the effect of non-
taminated conditions. This insulator is for a special uniform contamination. Such a study is also requisite

0018-9307/88/1200-1025$1~00@ 1988 IEEE

1026 Naito e t al.: Improvement of dc voltage insulation under contaminated conditions

because top-to-bottom, longitudinal or circumferential
non-uniform contamination is generally observed in the
natural field. A study was made on the required number
of this special dc fog insulator, taking into account all
the results of the present investigation.
DESIGN OF SPECIAL DC FOG
INS ULAT 0 RS
H E target of the dc contamination performance of
T the special dc fog insulator was set a t 1.25 t o 1 . 3 ~
that of the standard dc fog insulator. I t has been re-
ported [l] that wider clearances between rib tips are
effective increasing the surface insulation efficiency, es-
pecially under dc voltage. Keeping the above basic de-
sign concept in mind, even longer leakage distance and
wider shed clearance were considered for the design of
the special insulator.
Table 1. Data of prototype insulators
2.Types I and I1 are so designed as t o have alternate
long and short ribs in order t o provide for large spac-
ing between rib tips;
3.Types I11 and IV are designed to provide for large
spacing between rib tips by reduction of the number
of ribs;
4. Assuming that a larger clearance may be effective to
prevent bridging of partial arcs between sheds, Types
I1 and IV are designed, when compared with Types I
and 111, t o provide for larger shed clearances. Because
of this, Types I1 and IV insulators have a little shorter
5.
leakage distances than Types I and 111;
Type V has a physical size between the standard dc
fog insulator and the other four prototypes, and was
subjected t o a preliminary test.
ESTIMATION OF THE CONTAMINATION
PERFORMANCE OF PROTOTYPE
INS U LATO RS
the time of the design, the performance of the

Insulator
A T
prototype insulators under contaminated conditions
is estimated on the basis of the available d a t a of the dc
underribs
tests. Table 2 shows the preliminary test results ob-
Type 1
tained by the fog withstand method on the standard dc
fog and Type V insulators. As can be seen from Table 2,
type V has the fog withstand voltage 12 to 20% higher
Type II
_ _ -
than t h a t of the standard dc fog insulator. These d a t a
__
32 1 /4” were plotted for the new design as shown in Figure 2.
Type I820 mm) T h e fog withstand voltage of the prototype insulators
___-
can be estimated by extrapolation t o the shed diameter
1 I760 inml
4.44 I 5 1 of 460 mm. I t was expected t h a t the prototype insu-
lators would have a fog withstand voltage 1.2 t o 1 . 3 5 ~
higher than the standard dc fog insulator.

12-5!8”
Std. DC fag
1320 mill) Table 2.
Preliminary test results on dc fog insulators

Five prototype insulators were designed and pro-

duced for evaluation. Their particulars and profiles are
s h o w n in Tahle 1 a.nd Fielire 1 . toeether with those of

DESIGN CONCEPTION OF PROTOTYPE

INSULATORS
HE main points of the design of the insulators Types
TI t o V are as follows:

1. All the prototype insulators have much longer leakage

distances than those of the standard dc fog insulators;
I E E E Transactions on Electrical Insulation Vol. 23 No. 6 , December lQSS 1027

12 5W'D
(3209)
-1
Std. DC fog
(for reference)

Figure 1. Shed profile of prototype insulators

EVALUATION OF PROTOTYPE
I NS ULATOR S
series of dc artificial contamination tests were per-
A
kV
formed on the prototype insulators using dc f 7 5 0
contamination test equipment with thyristor control
system [2]. The power source is so designed that the
voltage regulation of < 5% can be achieved at an out-
put voltage of 3 ~ 2 0 0t o f 7 5 0 kV against a large leakage
120 - current of 2.5 A sustained for 1 min. with a riseldecay
time of 100 ms.

110 - The test was performed by the clean fog method

with the up and-down voltage application. 50% flashover
voltage was obtained from 10 t o 15 voltage applications
100 -
[3]. Negative polarity was used for the test, because
Prototvpe
Std. DC fog 400 mm DC fog insulators of the fact that this gives a lower value than positive
I t
/ / I polarity according to past experience [4].
300 400 500

SHED D I A M E T E R , rnm$
Figure 2.
Estimate of performance of prototype insulator
Unless otherwise stated, specimen insulators were
contaminated with Tonoko and salt as an insoluble and
soluble contaminant, respectively. Specimen insulators
were washed before every contamination by flooding tap
water over the surface of specimen insulators through a
hose.

The results are shown in Table 3 and Figure 3.

From the test results, it is found that the Type I1 shows
1028 Naito e t al.: Improvement of dc voltage insulation under contaminated conditions

Table 3. Specimen insulators and their test results

Test
Spacing (PI,mrn 170 170 170 170 170
specimen

Leakage distance
760 820 760
I
1 Sheddiameter.
mrn
1
I
320
I
I
-_ _____
460 460 460
~-

I 1I 1
-- i--
' I
L/P 3.19
I
I
4.78 4.44 4.70 4.44

1 mg/crn' I s.D.,
1 I
1

1 1 1
4.2 -
% '2

4.7 3.0

14.0 13.9
(126%) (125%)

6.9 6.2

Notes: ' 1 50% flashover voltage, "2 Standard deviation

the best performance among the four prototype insula- Thus a larger clearance between the ribs and a
tors. T h e 50% flashover voltage of Type I1 was about larger clearance between the sheds will give a higher
1.30~that of the standard dc fog insulator. efficiency of the leakage distance.

These test results revealed the following two facts:

EFFECT OF THE KIND OF
(1) T h e insulators having alternate long and short SOLUBLE MATERIALS IN THE
ribs have a little higher contamination flashover voltage
than insulators of the other types if their shed diameters CONTAM I NANTS
or leakage distances are the same. typical soluble material in the contaminants in in-

(2) Simple extension of the leakage distance does

not necessarily result in a better performance. Type I
had a 50% flashover voltage lower than that of Type I1
in spite of the longer leakage distance. Figure 4 is the
plot of the L I E (leakage distance per unit withstand
voltage) and the underrib factor [l] of the prototype
insulators. A good agreement of the present results of
Types I1 and IV with the past d a t a is recognized from
this Figure.
A land areas is gypsum (CaSO4) and usually little
accumulation of sea salt is found. Table 4 shows one
example of dc artificial contamination test results using
gypsum as the soluble material [5].
In the table, corresponding salt (NaCl) deposit den-
sity (SDD) which will give the same withstand voltage is
also shown for reference. From the Table, it is very clear
that the withstand voltage for gypsum is much higher for
salt of the same equivalent salt deposit density (ESDD),
I E E E Transactions on Electrical Insulation Vol. 23 No. 6 , December 1888 1029

Table 4. dc fog withstand voltages of dust-contaminated insulators

,nsubtor type
1
1
1
Shed diameter.
"m
1 String lengrh.
mm 1
Leakage distance
rnrn
'
I
ESDD
mg,c;2
'
I
w'thstand
1 voltage.
kV/unit 1
SDD which 'Ives the
wnhstand voltage,
mo/cm'

25 kip suspension
insulator

66 kip DC fog
420 640 0 062 25 2 0 013
insuhtor

120 kipsuspension
insulator
I 3so I
240 670 , 0065
I
23 2
1
0012

Prototype DC insulator
SDO = 0.03mg/sm'
x .... Tvpei
35 - 0 TYPE1 X TYPEN Past dara
0 .... Type11
Li TYPE 0 f TYPE V
A ...... TvpcUl
TYPE^ 0 Std. DC fog
0 ...... Type N
30 -
Present DC Insulator

....... Std. DC fog

25 -

20 -
2ok
"08 10 1.2 14

U N O E R R I B FACTOR

Figure 4.
15 -
Relation between the leakage distance per unit
withstand voltage and underrib factor

10 -
A
7
I I I I
Table 5.
0.01 0.03 0.1 0.2 Example of chemical analysis of contaminants
SOD. mq/cm'
collected in an inland area (By courtesy of De-
partment of Water & Power, City of Los Ange-
Figure 3. les)
50% flashover voltage characteristics of insula-
tors

because the gypsum has a much lower solubility in wa-

The d u e s 01 mnic densities and equwrlenl salt d.nrily tardl hive fo be multiplied by 10 ' IO
ter. obtain mg:cm'

Table 5 is a n example of the results of the chemical

analysis of the contaminants collected from an actual
dc transmission line traversing a n inland area. Table 6
gives a n estimate of the amount of soluble components
from the d a t a in Table 5. In the case of this example, the
soluble material consists of around 50% of gypsum and
around 50% of hiehlv soluble electrolvtes. When such
a contaminant is considered to deposit on the insula-
tor surface, the resultant flashover or withstand voltage
should be higher than t h a t for 100% salt. In order to
clarify this hypothesis, a series of artificial tests on Type
I1 were performed with the contamination slurry con-
1030 Naito et al.: Improvement of dc voltage insulation under contaminated conditions

Table 6 Table 7.
Estimation of soluble components of the contam- A comparison of withstand voltages of NaC1- and
inants collected in an inland area Gypsum-contaminated insulators

\
\
Soluble. Component.
\ \
\\
.IO 'rng/cm'
-
wt %
__
-- i z C l -h
y T 5 6 31 ,100;
NaCl 2 28 13
NaCI'CaSO, = 5oF6/50%

NaNo, 42 16 23 8
NaCl - 100%
~--- . ___
Caso, 84 1 1 47 4 NaCIiCdSO, - 50%/50%
~ -~ ~ ~-
Sample insulator Type U
CaCI, 3 44 19
' 50% flashover voltage
__- .

Ca (NO,), 31 84 17 9
~ ~ ____.

KCI 0 52 03
condition, longitudinal non-uniformity caused by the
__
dust-collecting effect, top-to bottom non-uniformity due
KNO, 8 48 48
to the rain-cleaning effect, etc. According to our past
__ -
test results [l],longitudinal or circumferential non-uniform
MgCIj 0 38 02
contamination usually gives almost the same flashover or
- ~ _ _ _ -
~~~

withstand voltage as that for uniform contamination of

MSSO, 0 08 - the same average ESDD. However, top-to-bottom non-
- ~- ____- ~-
uniformity is reported to give, depending upon the ra-
Ms (NO,), 4 15 23 tio, a considerably higher or lower flashover or withstand
--__
\ voltage compared with the uniform contamination of the
Total 177 44 same SDD.
-\

Generally, the top-to-bottom ratio of ESDD on a

sisting of salt, gypsum, Tonoko and water. The weight
ratio of salt and gypsum was 1:1, referring to the exam-
ple shown in Table 6. The test results are summarized
in Table 7. As can be seen in Table 7, the 50% flashover
voltage with the mixed soluble materials are higher by
15% than those for 100% of salt, a t 0.01 mg/cm2, and
by 25% a t 0.03 mg/cm2. These results suggest that a
fewer number of units in a string can be used in a n in-
land area as opposed to a seaside area, even for the same
ESDD level.
DC CONTAMINATION
PERFORMANCE OF
N0N- UN I FORM LY
CONTAMINATED INSULATORS
N the natural field, there are various types of non-
I uniform contamination on insulators: namely, cir-
cumferential non-uniformity under unidirectional wind
suspension insulator in the natural field will be around
1/5 to 1/20 due to the larger washing effect on the top
surface. As for dc non-uniform contamination perfor-
mance, there have been a few d a t a [1,4,6] available to
date. Also it is not clear whether this is the case for
large insulators like Types I-IV or whether these insu-
lators are effective a t very light contamination levels, as
low as 0.01 mg/cm2. In order t o confirm these points,
a series of artificial contamination tests were performed
on the prototype Type I1 at ESDD of 0.01 and 0.03
mg/cm2. The top-to-bottom ratio in these tests was set
a t 1/5.5 to 1/8. Figure 5 is the result of the tests to-
gether with the results for uniform contamination. Fig-
ure 6 is the top-to bottom ratio of SDD vs flashover
or withstand voltage characteristics including d a t a ob-
tained in the past [6]. As can be seen in these Figures,
when the top-to-bottom ratio of SDD is around 1/5,
the 50% flashover voltage of Type I1 is still about 30%
higher than that under uniform light contamination of
0.01 mg/cm2.
For the insulation design of transmission lines in
IEEE Transactions on Electrical Insulation Vol. 23 No. 6, December 1988 1031

1o ITiE- 1:s 51 mentioned effect of non-uniform contamination may be

taken into account if the actual contamination condition
a t site is fully known.

Test Period

0 October. 1884 REQUIRED NUMBER OF UNITS IN

0 October. 1984 INSULATOR STRINGS UNDER
Oeccmbcr. 1984
CO NTA MINATED C 0N D IT10NS
@ January. 1985

FOR DC TRANSMISSION LINES

HE anti-contamination design of a dc transmission
T line is usually made assuming uniform contamina-
tion by 100% of salt in consideration of rapid contamina-
tion, etc. However, when a mixture of salt and gypsum
is considered and the top-to-bottom ratio of ESDD is
less than unity, the withstand voltage is raised. Table 8
shows the required number of units for dc transmission
lines for the design withstand voltage of 550 kV, assum-
ing that the withstand voltage is equal to 50% flashover
0 01
1
0 03
1
31 02
I I
35
voltage -1.6450 where o = 5%.
SOD. mg,cm’

Table 8.
Required number of insulator units considering
Figure 5. the top-to-bottom ratio of contamination
50% flashover voltage characteristics of suspen-
sion insulators for dc
I Required number of units
-7 --
Insulator ESDD,
type rnglcm!
0

1.5 - -- __- -
----- I

Std.
DCfog
’, 0.02 1 29 1 23 1 21 I
I I I 1 J
01-

CONCLUSIONS
- dc insulator was developed which has a contami-
05

I I I I I I I
A nation withstand voltage 1.25 to 1 . 3 ~higher than
that of the existing standard dc fog insulator. This in-
10 0.2 05 1.0 20 50 roo
sulator is for a special application such as upgrading of
R A T I O OF S O 0 I T o p l B o n m l an existing dc transmission line. The main results are
as follows.

Figure 6. (1) To attach importance on leakage distance, clear-

Ratio of withstand voltage of non-uniformly con- ance between rib tips and clearance between the sheds
taminated insulatorp to that of uniformly con- of the insulator was found to cause the total leakage
taminated insulators at SDD of 0.01 to 0.03 mg/ distance to be highly effective.
cm2
(2) This series of research and development work
showed that insulator Type I1 is the best among the
inland areas without rapid contamination, the above-
1032 Naito et al.: Improvement of dc voltage insulation under contaminated conditions

four prototypes, satisfying the target withstand voltage

1.25 to 1 . 3 ~that of the standard dc insulator.

Other results obtained are as follows,

(3) In an inland area, the design contamination

withstand voltage of an insulator can be made higher for
an ESDD compared with that assuming uniform con-
tamination of NaCl as the only soluble contaminant.
This is because of the low top-to-bottom ESDD ratio
and the low solubility of the electrolytes in the contam-
inant.

(4) It was indicated that, by applying the newly

developed insulator and the idea shown in the above
paragraph (3), an insulator string assembly can be de-
signed which is shorter than that assuming a uniform
contamination of 100% NaC1.

REFERENCES

[l]T . Fujimura, K. Naito and Y. Sueuki, “dc Flashover

Voltage Characteristics of Contaminated Insula-
tors”, IEEE Trans. on Electrical Insulation, Vol. 16,
NO. 3, pp. 189-198, 1981.

[2] K. Naito, T. Kawaguchi and Y. Goino, “dc *750

kV Testing Equipment for Contamination Test of
UHV Class dc Insulators”, 4th International Sym-
posium on High Voltage Engineering, Paper No. 51.
02, 1983.
[3] “Specifications for a Comparative Evaluation of the
Clean Fog Contamination Test”, IEEE Working
Group on Insulator Contamination, June 15, 1984.

[4] I. Kimoto, T. Fujimura and K. Naito, “Performance

of Insulators for Direct Current Transmission Line
under Polluted Condition”, IEEE Trans. on Power
Apparatus and Systems, Vol. 92, pp. 943-949, 1973.

[5] “Insulation of UHV Transmission System”, pp. 320,

UHV Power Transmission Committee in Japan,
1982, (in Japanese).
[6] R. J . Nigbor, “dc Performance of Non-Uniformly
Contaminated Insulators” , CIGRE 33-83, WG-04,
Og-IWD, 1983.

This paper is based on a presentation given at the EPRI

HVDC Symposium, Los Angelos, CA, 19-21 November 1985

Manuscript was received on 27 Jan 1988