International Conference on Intelligent and Advanced Systems 2007

Dimensional Analysis for Contamination Severity Assessment on High Voltage Insulators

Ahmad S. Ahmad,*Saad AHMED, **S. Shahnawaz Ahmed
College of Engineering Universiti Tenaga Nasional Selangor Malaysia *Higher College FOR Technology IT Department AL KHWAIR - Oman ** Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology

Abstract- The environmental pollution which is mainly affected by the weather conditions are the main cause of flashovers on high voltage insulators leading to outages in power systems. It is generally recognized that the worst type of pollution that lead to the contamination flashovers is marine pollution as found in the immediate neighborhood of the coastal regions followed by solid pollution as found in the dense industrial areas. This research is directed towards the study of contamination of insulator under marine pollution. The effects of various meteorological factors on the pollution severity have been investigated thoroughly. The mathematical relations between Equivalent Salt Deposit Density (ESDD) with refer to meteorological conditions such as wind speed, rainfall and surface conductivity has been derived using Dimensional Analysis. It has been proved that the Dimensional Analysis technique is suitable for the contamination studies and assessment on the insulators. The predicted ESDD has been compared with the measured for a practical system.

I. INTRODUCTION With the ever increasing demand for electrical power, there has been a steady growth in transmission line voltages required for optimum and economic transfer of large blocks of power over long distances. As the level of transmission voltage is increased, switching and dynamic overvoltages and withstand ability of the insulator under polluted conditions have become most important factors determining the insulation level of the system. The reliability of the system mainly depends on the environmental and weather conditions which cause flashover on polluted insulators leading to system outages [1]. Peninsular Malaysia is the western part of the Malaysia where it is surrounded by Indian Ocean and straight of Malacca while on eastern part by South China Sea. Most of the countrys power stations are on the coastal areas of the Peninsula. This power transmission lines sometimes pass through areas near the sea and are easily polluted by the salt coming from the sea. That is one of the reasons why polluted insulator flashover have higher failure rate in coastal areas than rural areas. Thus the performance of insulators under polluted conditions is the critical aspect in electrical power supply reliability, serviceability and efficiency. Thickness of these contaminants depends upon the distance of the insulators from the seashore and the speed of the wind coming from the sea [2]. The survey [3] have found that in Malaysia, terms of Equivalent Salt Deposit Density (ESDD) are widely used to determine salt contamination level and it suggests the need

of washing the insulators when the ESDD value is equal or greater than 0.03 mg/cm2. Salt contamination makes a drastic reduction in the breakdown insulation level of the affected insulators, which will lead to breakdown [2]. The voltage across the insulator causes the flow of leakage currents of varying magnitudes, depending on concentration of salt [4]. The nature of wind all over Malaysia is generally light and variable [5]. Depending on the uniform changes of the wind flow patterns, four seasons can be recognized as southwest monsoon, northeast monsoon, and two shorter inter monsoon seasons [6]. The equatorial lies over Malaysia during inter monsoon season. Near the coastal areas, outdoor insulators are contaminated with the salt deposit, which affects the performance of the insulators. Salt particles carried by the wind coming from the sea to the land accumulate on the surface of insulators and hence reduce the breakdown insulation level of the affected insulators especially when the salt layer is wet by absorbing water from the mist or fog. The conductive layer created by this way is very dangerous and may lead to flashover [7]. Effect of wind velocity on contaminant accumulation on the insulator surface is not negligible. This is because limited effect of rainfall and wind speed washing the bottom surfaces of insulators leads to the accumulation of salt at the bottom of the insulator surface [8]. In this paper, the mathematical relationship between ESDD and wind speed, rainfall and surface conductivity has been developed using Dimensional Analysis technique and verified by practical data.

II. ONSITE MEASUREMENTS AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY In Malaysia, ESDD is widely used in determining the salt contamination level. The pollution severity at a test location is quantified in terms of equivalent salt deposit density stated in units of mg/cm2 NaCI. The equivalent amount of NaCI that would yield the same conductivity at complete dilution is known as ESDD. The site measurement activities are carried out daily for four months during rainy and dry season at Sultan Ismail Power Station in Paka, Terengganu, Malaysia using three samples of typical tension type Capand-Pin glass insulators which are commonly installed on transmission lines in that area. Paint brush and distilled water were used to remove the pollutant on the insulators from the samples that were taken down from scaffold. Every contaminated sample for each test was washed by immersing it in distilled water and the contamination value was

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measured by determining the conductivity or the rate of rise of the conductivity value for the polluted water after washing the insulator. ESDD can be measured by using such procedure. Since critical months and exposure periods of the year can be obtained, the knowledge about contamination behaviour and level will help in the establishment of maintenance policy. thing and will obscure the insights that a simple but effective model can often provide. The development of engineering models must therefore be a task focused on simplicity and clarity. Models must be simple and easy, but not simpler than they have to be. It therefore follows a task that is equally important as the development of a model is the identification, in a qualitative and quantitative manner, of its limitation [5].

III. DIMENSIONAL ANALYSIS MODELING IV. PROBLEM DESCRIPTION Modelling is the representation of real shape of the testing insulator by the simple equation. In situation where complex shapes and deposition contaminates on its surface is not uniform layer is concern, it is quite difficult to represent the flashover phenomenon [5]. Therefore, an easy technique should be adopted to minimize such difficulties by the application of Dimensional Analysis technique [5]. The application of Dimensional Analysis to a practical problem is based on the hypothesis that the solution of the problem is expressible by means of a dimensionally homogeneous equation in terms of specified variables. The selection of a dimensional analysis must be carried out in two steps. The first step is to select the number of fundamental dimensions, and second is to select the standard magnitudes for these dimensions. For instance, if length, force and time are selected as fundamental dimensions [9], then the number is 3. The second step is to decide the standard magnitude of length, force and time. For these we could select, for example, the foot, the pound-force, and the second or we could choose the meter, the kilogram-force and the year, etc. The dimensional analysis is a method by which information about a certain natural phenomenon is obtained. It is assumed that this phenomenon is governed by a dimensionally correct equation among certain variables. The basic theorem of dimensional analysis is the Buckinghams theorem and the different techniques of solution are described in the literature [10]. The dimensionally analysis actually follows the fundamental SI units of the relevant quantities under analysis. In this analysis, the number of dimensionless products in a complete set is equal to the total number of variables minus the number of fundamental dimensions in the problem. The expression of dimensions of different parameters concerning the contaminated insulator characteristic studies is derived easily using four fundamental dimensions of SI units of length, mass, time and current. A model is a device which is so related to a physical system [prototype] that observations on the model may be used to predict accurately the performance of a physical system in the desired respect [11]. The purpose for dimensional modelling is to be able to experiment on a scaled replica called model of the original construction called prototype, and then to project the results obtained from the model to the prototype [9]. The use of models to facilitate the design and testing of engineering or physical systems is often very beneficial. Experimentation on models that are properly designed, constructed, and used significantly reduces the likelihood of committing costly mistakes on the prototype. A model that is perfect in the sense of being identical to the real thing will be limited use to the engineer and therefore undesirable. It will be an unwieldy as the real The proposed modelling of pollution severity in terms of ESDD is done with the help of data obtained from site measurement performed at Sultan Ismail Power Station. The meteorological parameters on which the values of ESDD dependents are rainfall in mm, wind speed in m/s and surface conductivity in S. In this paper, ESDD = (W, R, , No,) modeling has been attempted based on Dimensional Analysis instead of any empirical approach. A total number of 120 data are used to develop the mathematical model. The data are then collected in Microsoft Excel where graph is plotted to see the closest relationship between the measured ESDD and the calculated ESDD. Finally, out of 120 data, 50 data shows the closest result and are plotted against the measured ESDD values as shown in Fig. 1.

V. DERIVATION OF DIMENSIONS AND MATHEMATICAL MODEL DEVELOPMENT For derivation the expression of concerning parameters, the MKS mass system is employed. Four fundamental dimensions of SI units of length L, mass M, time T, and current A are used throughout the derivation. For calculating the ESDD of contaminated insulator, it is important for to observe the effect of the wind speed W and rainfall R on its contamination layer. The calculation of ESDD also primarily depends on the pollution surface conductivity , and static arc constant No. Therefore the relation among themselves can be written as: ESDD = (W, R,

, No,)

(1)

The dimensional matrix of the above variables can be written as k1 ESDD L M T A -2 1 0 0 k2 W 1 0 -1 0 k3 R 1 0 0 0 k4 -2 -1 3 2 k5 N 1 1 -3 (n-1)

where k1, k2, k3, k4, and k5 are the exponents of the variables ESDD, W, R, and N respectively. The dimensional matrix after applying Gaussian elimination to the above matrix can be expressed as

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k1 ESDD L M T A -2 0 0 0

k2 W 0

k3 R 0 0 1 0

k4 0 0 0 2

k5 N - (n+1)

% MAE =

( ESDDmeasur ed ESDDcalculated ) X 100% h

1 2
0 0

3 (n+1) 4 n 1 2
(n-1)

= 0.49071 0.510663 100% 50 = 0.0399 %

In this model, static arc constant is being left as constant but include the surface conductivity. From the expression of R , it is noticeable that ESDD = W rainfall gives a positive power of 0.5385. By actual fact rainfall suppose to wash away the salt contaminated on the insulator. Limited effect of the rain factor washing the bottom surfaces of the insulators results in accumulation of salt at the bottom of the insulator surface. The bottom surface of an insulator on the average accumulates two to three times more than the amount of pollutant for the top surface. In general, the values of ESDD increases with increase in wind speed. Sometimes the combined action of strong wind and rainfall removes the contaminants from the upper surface of the insulator. But in long term, the wind speed and its associated parameter such as wind direction help to accumulate more contaminants on the insulator surface [8]. The mean absolute error is about 0.0399%. The present model is validated against experimental and theoretical results of other researchers and is observed to be in good agreement.
3 0.5385 0.5385

Values of k2, k3, k4 and k5 in terms of k1 from the above dimensional matrix are as follows: k2 = 3k1 (2) (3) (4) (5)

n 1 ) k1 n +1 n 1 k4 = ( ) k1 n +1 2 k5 = - ( ) k1 1+ n
k3 = (

By assigning the value of k1 is 1 and the expression of (5) can be written in the matrix form in the following way, k1 ESDD 1 k2 W 3 k3 R k4 k5 N

0.08 0.07 E S D D (m g /s q .c m ) 0.06 0.05 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 0 1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 37 40 43 46 49 RUNS ESDD measured ESDD calculated

n 1 n +1

n 1 2 -( ) n +1 n +1

Therefore, the complete set of dimensionless products consists of the single product, which is related by the following equation,
3

= ESDD W R

n 1 n +1

n 1 n +1

2 ) n +1

(6)

By applying Buckinghams theorem, () = 0, (6) can be written as,

3

ESDD = W

n 1 ) n +1

n 1 ) n +1

2 ) n +1

(7)
Fig. 1. Variation of ESDD measured and ESDD calculated

Equation (7) can be modified by choosing the value of n = 0.3 [6] and N is considered as constant [12]. Hence, the final expression of ESDD is, ESDD = W
3

X. CONCLUSION In this paper, a relationship between ESDD with wind speed, rainfall and surface conductivity has been developed by dimensional analysis technique. Models from the data obtained during the research period has been developed, an almost perfect models have been achieved in comparison to the expected model. This model can be applied for obtaining ESDD of the insulators located at any site having meteorological conditions similar to Paka Power Station site. The modeled outputs of ESDD closely follow the experimental results and can predict ESDD with a mean

0.5385

0.5385

(8)

The mathematical relation between ESDD, rainfall, wind speed and surface conductivity has been developed based on Dimensional Analysis technique. Result obtained by calculation using equation from [10] is tabulated in Table 1. The values of ESDD obtained from the model and practical site is plotted in Fig. 1. To obtain the mean absolute error for this model, following formula is used,

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absolute error (%MAE) of less than 1 %. This technique also provides an ideal way for determining the frequency of maintenance of the contaminated insulators. REFERENCES [1] Ahmad S. Ahmad, P.S. Ghosh, S. Shahnawaz Ahmed and Syed Abdul Kader Aljunid, Assessment of ESDD on high-voltage insulators using artificial neural network, journal of Electrical Power Systems Research 72, EPSR, 2004, pp. 131-136. [2] Hussein Ahmad & Mohd Y. Bin Ibrahim, A Multivariate Model for Equivalent Salt Deposit Density ESDD Distribution Prediction For the Maintenance of Polluted Insulator, CIGRE Symposium, Bangkok, 1989. [3] F. Zedan & M. Akhbar, Performance on HV Transmission Line Insulators in Desert Conditions, IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery; Vol 6, No.1, 1991, pp. 439-447. [4] Malaysian Meteorological Service, Annual Summary of Meteorological Observations, 1996. [5] Md Abdus Salam, Modeling of Contaminated Insulator Characteristics, Phd thesis, UTM, Malaysia, 2000. [6] Alston, L.L. and Zoledziowski, S., Growth of Discharges of Polluted Insulation, IEE Proce., 110; 1963, pp. 1260-1266. [7] Ahmad S. Ahmad, P. S. Ghosh, Syed Abdul Kader Aljunid, Hussein Ahmad, Modeling of Various Meteorological Effects on Contamination Level for Suspension Type of High Voltage Insulators Using ANN, Proceedings of IEEE/PES Transmission & Distribution Conference and Exhibition 2002 Asia Pacific, IEEE/PES T&D 2002, Yokohama, Japan, Vol. 2, pp. 1030-1035. [8] Md. Abdus Salam, Hemen Goswami, Zia Nadir, determination of equivalent salt deposit density using wind velocity for a contaminated insulator, Journal of Electrostatics, Vol. 63, 2005, pp. 37-44. [9] Thomas Szirtes, Applied Dimensional Analysis and Modeling, Mc Graw Hill, 1998. [10] Langhaar, H.L., Dimensional analysis and theory of models, John Wiley & Sons INC., New York, 1951. [11] Ahmad S. Ahmad, Hussein Ahmad, Md Abdus Salam, Sea Salt Contamination Pattern on High Voltage Insulator in Littoral Region of Peninsular Malaysia, Annual Report of the IEEE Conference on Electrical Insulation & Dielectric Phenomena, CEIDP 99, 17-21 Oct. 1999, Austin, Texas, USA, pp. 670-673. [12] Rizk, Farouk A.M, Application of Dimensional Analysis to Flashover Characteristics of Polluted Insulators, IEE Proce., 117, 1970, pp. 2257-2260.

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