Simulation Study on the Effects of DC Electric Field on Insulator Surface Pollution Deposit.

Energized insulator's surface contamination is greatly affected by its electric field properties. However, few reports about the electric field influencing mechanism on the pollution deposition have been presented. In this paper, the coupling-physics model of a three-unit XP-160 insulator string was established, and the particles' deposition process was simulated by using the finite element method. The effects of the electric field on the pollution particles' motion were analyzed. Research results indicate that the closer to the insulator string, the larger the intersection angle q between the electric force and its horizontal component. The main function of the electric field on insulator contamination is that it changes the pollution particles' vertical moving speed, thus accelerating the particles' deposition process. The particle capture coefficient ratio ck can be used to reflect the pollution degree discrepancy between DC-energized and non-energized insulators. In this paper the ratio ck of the DC-energized to non-energized condition is in the range of 1.04 to 1.98, very close to the field measurement results of the DC pollution ratio k. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]