Contaminating performance of typical porcelain insulators in natural condition

Pollution deposition of insulators may lead to flashover, and the factors affect it should be studied to better prevent the occurrence of pollution-induced flashover. In this paper, by taking XP-70 insulator as the sample, the software FLUENT was used to simulate the airflow field distribution as well as the particle collision coefficient (P) around insulator string. At the same time, a natural contamination test lasted for 20 months was carried out in the natural contamination site. The test results indicate that: wind velocity affects the air flow field near the surface of insulator; the particle collision coefficient (P) is affected by particle diameter and wind velocity; there is certain comparability between the simulation test and natural contamination test. Research results may not only give new thoughts for the establishment of insulator contamination model, but also provide references for the design of external insulation configuration.