IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO.

2, APRIL 2010

995

Study of Leakage Current Distribution in Wooden

Pole Using Ladder Network Model
K. L. Wong and M. F. Rahmat

AbstractA wooden pole is the most popular choice as the

physical support structure for an electrical distribution network.
A recent increase in the failures of wooden poles that lead to
pole fires warrant further investigation into the performance of
wooden poles and pole design. This paper examines the leakage
current distributions on the radial, heartwood and sapwood
section of the wood pole and the effect of the metal insertion
in wooden structures using an electrical ladder network model.
This paper presents the findings from two wooden pole models:
a basic wooden pole and a complete wooden pole with cross-arm
and supporting bars attached. The results show that the bulk of
the leakage current flows through the internal section under wet
weather conditions and the metal insertion along the radial of the
wood increase the magnitude of the leakage current. The model
takes into consideration the pole dimension, rain parameter, moisture content, air resistance, and preservative effect (chromated
copper arsenate) on the wooden pole.
Index TermsLadder circuits, leakage currents, poles and
towers.

I. INTRODUCTION

OODEN poles have been commonly used to support

electrical distribution throughout the world. More than
5 million wooden poles are currently in service all around the
Australian distribution network and up to 70% were installed
more than 20 years ago. Based on economic figures, millions
of dollars of capital expenditure is needed for pole replacement
over the next decade. Wooden poles, in general, are less expensive compared to manufactured alternative poles such as steel
and concrete with minimum greenhouse effect [1]. The life expectancy of a wooden pole is within the range of 30 to 40 years.
Therefore, it is critical that there are continuous research works
in studying the performance and methods to prolong the life expectancy of the wooden poles.
Most of the researches are concentrated on wooden poles
preservation [2], [3], reliability and assessment of wooden
poles [4][8] and leakage current of high voltage insulators
related to wooden poles [9][11]. The impregnated process of
wood with either oil-borne (pentachlorophenol) or water-borne
preservatives [ammonia copper arsenate (ACA) or chromated
copper arsenate (CCA)] eliminate biological attack by fungi,

Manuscript received October 16, 2008; revised June 19, 2009. First published December 04, 2009; current version published March 24, 2010. Paper
no. TPWRD-00735-2008.
The authors are with the RMIT University/School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Melbourne, Vic., Australia (e-mail: alan.wong@rmit.edu.au;
s3172130@student.rmit.edu.au).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRD.2009.2034894

insects, termites and woodpeckers and also increase the mechanical and insulation strength [2]. The structural reliability of
wooden poles, nondestructive testing of pole measurement and
minimizing life-cycle costs of inspection and refurbishment of
wood poles in large distribution networks has been studied in
[4], [7] and [8]. It has been understood that leakage current
flow due to surface insulator contamination causes pole top
fire and pocket burning during high humidity [11]. Although
the number of pole fires is small relative to the total number
of circuit-poles, the resulting damage and service interruption
make their prevention of prime importance.
Wooden pole fires attributed the causes to several factors.
Contamination of the insulator surface due to industrial pollution, sea salt or agriculture spray and dust allows leakage current to flow on the surface of the insulator and through to the
wooden pole. Precipitations such as fog or rain produce uneven
wetting on the wood and together with wind provide the catalyst for causing ignition of the wood. Natural shrinkage and
cracking of the wood loosening the metal and wood connection may allow spark discharge inside the bolt hole with sufficient leakage current magnitude and adequate air in the sparking
zone [12]. It is reported that the annual wood pole failures in the
Western Australia network are between 1.88 and 4.34 pole failures per year per 10 000, in comparison with the industry target
of 1 pole failure per year per 10 000 poles [13]. Wooden pole
safety is critically important in asset management as it reduces
wildfire ignition, protects the public from injury and minimizes
costly power outages for power utility companies.
This paper presents new insights into the current distribution
along wooden poles using the ladder network model first presented by Filter and Mintz [14] and the results will help us to
better understand the causes of pole failure that lead to catastrophic events such as pole fires. Sections II and III discuss
the ladder network model, including the simulation environment
and the simulation results obtained from MATLAB. Section IV
presents a wooden pole model complete with cross-arm and
metal support and the simulation results in both dry and wet
conditions followed by the conclusion in Section V.
II. WOODEN POLE MODEL
The ladder network model was developed by Filter and Mintz
[14], which could be used to perform whole pole evaluations
and wood stake studies. The model consists of three wood resistances i.e., sapwood resistance , heartwood resistance
and radial resistance
as shown in Fig. 1. The resistances in
this model are determined by pole species, type of preservative
treatment and moisture content percentage (MC %) of the pole.
These three components are interconnected in the ladder network. The model provides possible connection points for other

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 2, APRIL 2010

Fig. 1. Resistance of wooden pole with king bolt insertion.

resistance representing pole hardware, cross arm or metal insertion. Rain resistance can be added to the model using a suitconnected between the nodes
able external bridging resistor,
along the pole length.
The 0.75 m steps are chosen for the ladder model. For example, a 12 meter pole will be represented by a 16-step model.
This step size is sufficient to describe the behavior at the bottom,
middle and the top section of the pole. Section 1 represents the
section closest to the ground and section 16 is the highest secand
represent the
tion above ground as shown in Fig. 2.
conductor resistance and water resistance on the wood surface
respectively. However, these parameters are not taken in conwas limited
sideration in this study. The moisture content,
to no more than 30% and scaling factor 1.83 was applied for the
reflected to the
[15]. The moisture gradient relative to
the sapwood and heartwood along the wood pole is presented
in Table I. In our simulation, a typical 12 meter Red-Pine pole
height without cross-arm configuration was chosen. The top and
bottom radius is 11 and 18 cm, respectively, and the top and
bottom heartwood radius is 8.15 and 14.2 cm with 0.75 m step
and the pole was assumed to be treated with CCA. As depicted
resistance was installed at section
in Fig. 1, a king bolt of 2
12. The magnitude of leakage current depends on the degree
of insulator contamination and the overall pole resistance. The
and
as a function of the moisture conequations for the
are shown in (1) and (2)
tent and the

Fig. 2. Wood pole ladder network model [14].

TABLE I
POLE MODEL MOISTURE GRADIENT RELATIVE TO THE SAPWOOD AND
THE HEARTWOOD ALONG THE WOOD POLE [14]

(1)
(2)
III. RESULTS
A. Pole Resistance
In this paper, the wooden pole is represented by 16 pole sections, with section 1 at the pole bottom, connected in ladder network format. Each pole section consists of radial, heartwood and
sapwood components. Figs. 3 and Fig. 4 depict the values of the
three resistances in dry and wet conditions (11.7% and 22.7%
moisture content). For dry pole section 16, which is the highest

section above ground, the heartwood, sapwood and radial resistances is 2.89 M , 74.91 M and 137.09 M respectively.
The value of resistance varies as the diameter of the pole increases from bottom to top. The linearity between the pole resistance and the pole diameter can be clearly seen, particularly
in pole section 3 to pole section 14 where the moisture content
remains constant. In the proposed model, the metal insertion is
resistor connected to the radial resistance
represented by a 2

WONG AND RAHMAT: STUDY OF LEAKAGE CURRENT DISTRIBUTION IN WOODEN POLE USING LADDER NETWORK MODEL

Fig. 3. Resistance of dry wooden pole.

Fig. 4. Resistance of wet wooden pole.

at pole section 12. The effect of the king bolt insertion is visible
in both Figs. 3 and Fig. 4, especially when the wooden pole is
subjected to moisture.
The moisture content has a significant role in wooden pole
modeling. In accordance to the original model developed by
Filter and Mintz [14], the moisture content increases from 9% at
the central position to 19.5% at 0.75 m to 1.5 m from the ground
and eventually 30% at the section just above the ground. The
effect of moisture content can clearly been seen in Fig. 3. The
heartwood section of a wooden pole has the lowest resistance
level and this is a result of the higher percentage of moisture
content level which resides in the heartwood section [15].
When the wooden pole is exposed to rain, the rain effect increases the overall moisture content. In this paper, a moisture
level of 22.7% was chosen to represent the wet condition of the
pole and the results can be found in Fig. 4. The moisture content
significantly reduces the value of the three resistive components
of the wood. In comparison to the value of the dry condition,
the heartwood, sapwood and radial resistances at pole section
16 under the wet conditions is now 5.15 k , 133.22 k , and
243.79 k , respectively.
B. Current Distribution of Dry and Wet Wooden Pole
In pole fire study, the insight into the leakage current distribution across various pole sections is critical. Figs. 5, Fig. 6 and
Fig. 7 depict the current distribution for sapwood, heartwood
and radial resistance for pole section 1 to 16 under both dry and
wet conditions. In dry conditions, the sum of the current across

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Fig. 5. Current distribution for sapwood resistance.

Fig. 6. Current distribution for radial resistance.

Fig. 7. Current distribution for heartwood resistance.

the three resistances is almost equal to zero or negligible. The

simulated results show that in the case when the insulation level
of the high voltage insulator reduced significantly due to surface
pollution, the high value of wood resistance limits the total current flow and the effect of the king bolt insertion at Section 12
has minimum effect on the current distribution.
When the moisture level was set to 22.7%, which represents
typical damp conditions occurring after rain, the overall leakage
current increases to the mA range. In the case of sapwood and
heartwood resistance, the highest current of 4.9 mA appears
across pole section 16, which is the pole top. Under wet conditions, the effect of the king bolt insertion can be clearly observed. In Fig. 6, we could see a current spike at pole section
12 where the king bolt is located. Other observations include

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 2, APRIL 2010

Fig. 9. Wooden pole with cross-arm and supporting steel bars.

Fig. 8. Current distribution of wet radial resistance with different location of

king bolt.

the proportion of current flowing through the heartwood section. These sections carry most of the current through its heartwood section down to the ground. Also, the change in current
distribution at the bottom pole sections (0 to 1.5 m from ground)
is contributed to by the higher moisture level. Leakage current
with the value of 9.5 mA is recorded in the centre sections of
the pole.
C. Current Distribution Analysis for Radial Resistance
The damage to the wooden pole due to the pole fires frequently takes place at the cross arm junction where the attachment of the king bolt or the insulators metal support is located. Fig. 8 depicts how the metal insertion affected the current flow across the radial resistance. In this simulation, three
different scenarios are created: the king bolt at pole section 14,
pole section 12 and pole section 10. In the first scenario, a current spike is created at section 14. The leakage current is increased from 1.7 mA at pole section 15 to 3.4 mA. As the king
bolt is shifted down to section 12 and 10, the effect becomes less
apparent due to the fact that leakage current drops to approximately 1 mA at pole section 14 for all three scenarios.

Fig. 10. Electrical model for the wooden pole and cross arm (including steel
bar and king bolt).

IV. COMPLETE WOODEN POLE MODEL

In this paper, we extended the wooden pole originally presented in [14] to include a wooden cross-arm, steel-bar holder
and air resistance between the metal and wood interface. The
complete wooden pole and the electrical network model are
shown in Figs. 9 and Fig. 10. In this section, the following
analyses were performed.
1. Effect of the steel bar holder.
2. Effect of the air resistance.
3. Effect of moisture in the wood.
The steel bar being used as the cross-arm holder is common
practice in Australia and around the world. It is used to replace
the conventional wooden bar holder for its excellent mechanical
strength and durability. For comparison, a wooden pole model
with and without the steel bar is created and the results of the radial current are presented in Fig. 11. The result highlights the effect of the steel bar especially at pole section 13 and pole section
14 under dry conditions. The introduction of the steel bar holder
causes the radial current at pole section 14 to increase from 0.04

Fig. 11. Radial current distribution of dry wooden pole.

to 0.12 mA. The steel-bar bolt,

existence at pole section 13
also creates another current concentration with a magnitude of
0.15 mA. The installation of the steel bar causes overall resistance changes and results in higher current concentration at the
king bolt, as shown in Fig. 11.
Continuous expansion and contraction of the wood influenced
by the weather effect and varying air temperature, leads to the
. A loosened bolt creates an air
loosening of the king bolt,
gap in between metal-wood and the wooden pole and wooden
cross arm junction. Previous reports confirmed that the air gap
creates a high voltage zone across the dry band region which
leads to sparking phenomena across the gap and eventually leads
to pole fire [16]. However, the results in Fig. 12 show that the
does not have much significant effect
air gap resistance,

WONG AND RAHMAT: STUDY OF LEAKAGE CURRENT DISTRIBUTION IN WOODEN POLE USING LADDER NETWORK MODEL

999

Fig. 14. Complete leakage current model.

Fig. 12. Radial current distribution of dry wooden pole with cross-arm during
dry condition.

Fig. 13. Comparison of radial current distribution for complete wooden pole
.
configuration with R

in terms of causing an increase in current concentration at the

radial resistance.
Weather also played an important role in a pole fire event.
During the dry season, the moisture content of the wooden pole
can be as low as 11.7% and increase up to 22.7% when it is
exposed to rain. Fig. 13 shows a large current spike for wet
conditions at section 13 and 14 of the wooden pole. The radial
current increases from 0.15 to 9 mA in wet conditions at pole
section 13. This large magnitude leakage current could lead to
pole fire phenomena.
V. CONCLUSION
This paper demonstrates the use of the ladder network model
to study the current distribution in the wooden pole. The model
in this paper was developed based on actual physical details
of a red-pine CCA-treated 12-meter pole. Since the heartwood
and sapwood resistance are represented by lumped parameters,
many different forms of circuit analysis, which could not
be obtained experimentally, can be done using the computer
simulation.
Many previous reports described how the loose metal contact
between the wood and metal insertion contributes to the occurrence of pole fires [16]. However, the results in Fig. 6 suggest
that higher current concentration occurs at the metal-wood junction regardless of whether air gap exists between the wood and
the metal. The current concentration as shown in this figure is

solely due to the reduction in the overall resistance as a result of

the metal insertion.
The ladder network model also helps us to establish an important fact whereby the bulk of leakage current flows under the
surface of the wood. The heartwood section carries the bulk current from the pole top to pole bottom and the king bolt insertion
sets the upper limit for the amount of current flow. Furthermore,
the impact of the king bolt can be clearly seen when it is located
closer to the source of the leakage current, in this case, it is a
damaged or polluted insulator.
The results in this paper will help us to find new solutions in
eliminating the occurrence of pole fires. This work highlights
the important fact that a complete wooden pole model should
be adopted in leakage current studies since the leakage current
is a function of the line voltage and the total resistance consists of the insulator resistance and the wood resistance, as depicted in Fig. 14. In addition, introduction of metal bolts and
additional structure such as a pole-mounted transformer should
be thoroughly examined and analyzed. Better pole design that
takes into account the current distribution on the sapwood, radial, and heartwood resistance could provide the answer to the
long-standing pole fire problem.
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 25, NO. 2, APRIL 2010

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K. L. Wong, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.

M. F. Rahmat, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.