King Saud University

College of Engineering
Electrical Engineering Department
EE445

Section number
80717

HV#3: Insulator flashover

Title test
Date of experiment 29/7/1443
20/8/1443

Date of submission 27/8/1443

Student name Fahad Q

ID number

Instructor’s name Dr. Abdulrahman AlOraini

 SUMMARY:
- First, we tried different conditions on the insulator such as:
o Number of suspension insulator units.
o Insulator surface condition (Clean & Dry, Clean & Wet, Polluted, Polluted &
Wet).
Then we tested when does the breakdown occurs. Afterward, we measured V50 by using
the Up and Down method.

OBJECTIVES:
1. To perform AC and impulse flashover voltage tests on suspension insulators under
different surface conditions.
2. To find the 50% flashover voltage (V50) of the Insulator by using the up and down
method.

QUESTIONS:

Q2) Calculate string efficiency for a string of one, two and three insulators, why is
this efficiency less than one and how we can improve it?

flashover voltage of the string

- String efficiency =
number of units ∗ flashover voltage of one string

o For one unit:

108.23
String efficiency = * 100 = 100%
1 ∗ 108.23
o For two units:
181.73
String efficiency = * 100 = 83.96%
2 ∗ 108.23
o For three unit:
248.9
String efficiency = * 100 = 76.66%
3 ∗ 108.23

- The string efficiency will decrease by increasing the unit of insulation because of the non-uniform distribution
of voltage on the insulator's surface.
- The efficiency can be improved by using a guard ring, or by increasing the length of cross arm of the tower.
Q3) In one bar graph, plot AC flashover voltages of one suspension insulator
under four different surface conations studied in this experiment. Comment on
your results.

Fig.1: AC flashover voltage of one suspension insulator under different surface conations.

- It is noticed that the polluted and dry surface has the highest flashover voltage because
the pollution layer acts as an additional insulator. But the clean and dry surface is also
have a high flashover voltage. On the other hand, the polluted and wet surface has the
least flashover voltage.
- In the clean and wet surface, it has lower flashover voltage then the clean and dry since
tap water is not an insulator because it has melted materials.

Q4) Plot the variation of breakdown probability against impulse voltage and find
V50 from the graph. Alternatively determine the V50 by up and down method.
Compare V50 with peak AC flashover voltage for the same surface conditions?
And comment on your results.

Fig.2: Variation of breakdown probability against impulse voltage.

 𝐹𝑙𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒
- V50 = ∑𝑛=10
1 = 124.6 kV.
𝑛
- V50 is greater than AC flashover voltage (108.23 kV) for the same surface conditions.

Q5) Define impulse ratio and calculate this ratio for the tested insulator.
- It is the ratio between the breakdown voltages of an insulator when subjected to impulse
voltage to the AC breakdown voltage.

𝑉50 124.6
- Impulse ratio = = = 1.15
𝑉𝐴𝐶 108.23

Q8) How does rain influence the insulator flashover voltage?

- Since the rain water is not pure, it will lead to a lower flashover voltage as well as the
Polluted & Wet condition from Fig.1 .

Q9) What types of voltage which occur in real power systems are experimentally
simulated as impulse voltages in a high voltage laboratory?
- The types of voltages simulated are lightning and switching surges.

COMMENTS:
1. In areas that are near to the sea and pollution, the insulators must clean frequently.
2. V50 can be obtained by either using Up and Down method, or statistical method.

CONCLUSION:
1. When the number of suspension insulator increase the breakdown voltage increase.
2. The string efficiency decreases as we increase the number of units.
3. The maximum flashover voltage under polluted and dry surface.
4. The minimum flashover voltage under polluted and wet surface.
5. The Impulse ratio = 1.15