Effect of thermal capacities of ceramic insulators on their electrical and thermal analysis under contaminated surface conditions

This paper presents a numerical model for both thermal and electrical analysis of a polluted surface insulator. A boundary condition connecting a heat balance of heat generation due to the leakage current flow and heat loss to environment by convection and heat conduction to insulating material has been investigated. The model applies the Boundary Element Method (BEM) for the thermal calculations as well as Surface Charge Simulation Method (SCSM) and Discrete Charge Simulation (DSC) techniques for the electrical calculations. As an example, the model is applied to a polluted cylindrical insulator supporting a high-voltage (HV) electrode above the ground plane. The results are compared with another model where the heat loss to the insulating material has been ignored.