Contour optimization of a pin insulator using neural network

ABSTRACT: Insulator geometry strongly affects the distribution of electric field along the surface of the insulator. If the field distribution is not uniform, that stresses the insulator unevenly which most often may lead to unnecessary loss of energy, flashover and eventual breakdown of the power network system. As the desire to have a more efficient, effective and reliable system devoid of losses increases; the need for a well optimized insulator arises. In this study, neural network is used to obtain an optimized form of a pin insulator. Neural network is trained by using geometric information of the pin insulator and field intensities in order to provide a field distribution as uniform and minimum as possible along the insulator surface. Electric field intensities along the surface for different insulator profiles are obtained numerically by using finite element method. Finally, the result obtained such as the mean absolute error of less than 0.1 at optimum, shows that the network has successfully been used to optimize the contour geometry of the pin insulator. Keywords: High voltage, insulator, contour optimization, neural network, electric field distribution. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………