Analysis of Electric Field Distribution Along Insulator Surface by Genetic Algorithms

Insulators are essential parts of power systems by means of electrical insulation and mechanical connections. In order to design a cost-effective insulation system, the stress distribution along the insulators should be uniform with keeping the electric field as minimum as possible. Since the electric field heavily depends on geometric shape, to have a uniform stress distribution an optimal contour design for insulators should be used. Using optimal geometries, insulation characteristics of an electrode system can be improved. In this study, Genetic Algorithm (GA) method is used for analyzing stress distribution along a support insulator surface. Genetic algorithm can be applied to solve a variety of optimization problems that are not well suited for standard optimization algorithms, including problems in which the objective function is discontinuous, non-differentiable, stochastic, or highly nonlinear. In this study, electric field distribution is determined by the software COMSOL 4.3 of finite element method and a fitness function is generated to be optimized. GA searches for the optimum solution for insulator geometry having a uniform and as minimum as possible electric field distribution along the surface. Keywords: Contour Optimization Of Insulator, Genetic Algorithm, Finite Element Method