A new approach for reducing surface flashover in high voltage insulators

Since the surface flashover caused by contamination in high voltage insulators can cause energy interruption, it creates a negative situation in terms of the energy continuity of the system. In order to prevent this situation, which may occur due to flashover, a lot of research has been done on various measures that can be applied to the insulators. In order to reduce surface leakage currents for increasing the leakage resistance, that is extending the length of the insulator, can be seen as an effective measure against flashover. However, the increase in the length of the insulator in high voltages; there are new problems such as high costs, as it will cause the increase in post lengths, console openings, deflection and oscillations. In this study, a system that simulates lightning impulse voltages was created with the help of Matlab/Simulink package program. A structure producing different impulse voltages was obtained. Experiments were conducted by modeling the insulator structure with a water jet system. The water jet testing system is not a mathematical model but an engineering model. As it is an engineering model, it is completely focused on the response of system behavior in practical life. The water jet system has been changed to have different degree of contamination. At this stage, the flow of water was left constant. During the experiments, structures with added inductance, which are predicted to have a flashover-reducing effect, were used. It was observed that the temperature of the water used increased according to the number of repeated lightning impulse voltages. As a result of the experiments in inductance-connected state, it was determined that the flashover event was at lower voltage levels in positive impulse voltage compared to the situations in negative impulse voltage. It has been identified that the inductance value and the increase of the jet length increase the flashover tension. The experimental system with lightning impulse voltages has been shown to reduce the flashover, that is, the flashover voltage, thanks to structures with different inductance values. Keywords: Pollution flashover in insulators, Pollution resistance, Flashover voltage, High impulse voltage, Water jet