1st International Conference on Electrical Materials and Power Equipment - Xi'an - China
Study on Large-tonnage Live Working Tools for
800 kV UHVDC Transmission Lines at High
Altitudes
Peng Yong1, Huang Zehua3, Chen Bo2, Lei Xinglie1, Qiu Zhonghua2, Zhang Cimeng3
1
China Electric Power Research Institute, Wuhan 430070, China
2
State Grid Sichuan Maintenance Company, Chengdu 610000, China
3
College of Electrical Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
Abstract- China has built several f800 kV UHVDC (ultra-high
voltage DC) transmission lines from the southwest high-altitude
areas to the southeast coastal areas. But there is a lack of
research on large-tonnage live-working tools for 800 kV
UHVDC transmission lines at high altitudes. In order to meet the
higher requirements in strength, weight and reliability for the
live replacement of large-tonnage insulators, a set of live working
tools for 800 kV UHV DC transmission lines at high altitudes is
designed and developed in this paper. Firstly, according to the
actual characteristics of UHV DC transmission lines live working
at high altitudes, the minimum effective insulation length and the
rated load of the live working tools are calculated. Secondly, the
material selection and the processing technology are analyzed,
and a large-tonnage insulator holder with the new Titanium alloy
material is designed and tested. Thirdly, the new synthetic fiber
material is used to make a novel soft insulating wire holding tool
to take the place of the traditional hard one. Electrical
performance tests and mechanical properties tests show that the
set of live working tools for 800 kV UHVDC transmission lines
at high altitudes meets the relevant technical requirements.
I. INTRODUCTION
Southwest region of China is rich in clean energy, but the
load center is concentrated in the southeast. In order to
transmit the large number of electric energy, UHV (ultra-high
voltage) transmission is necessary [1]. Compared to UHVAC,
UHVDC transmission system is more suitable for point-to-
point, large-capacity, and long-distance electric energy
transmission [2]. Due to the characteristics of southwest power
grid, some corridors of 800kV UHVDC transmission lines
are at an altitude of 2000 to 2500 meters [3].
In order to ensure the security and stability operation of the
power grid and reduce the probability of power grid accident,
live working on transmission lines is becoming increasingly
necessary [4]. Relevant technical studies mainly include the
safe distance of live working, live working protective gap, and
live working tools [5]. Among them, the study of the working
tools of live-working plays an important role. In the past, key
technical parameters of live working were obtained by
experiment and theoretical calculation, and the safety
protective principle of live working operators was determined
[6-7]. The research method of simulation test was also used in
the domestic electric power research institute. Corresponding
978-1-5090-5736-8/17/$31.00 2017 IEEE
315
technical measures were put forward from the view of
operation mode and personnel safety protection [8].
However, most of the key technical parameters of live
working tools put forward in the past were only suitable for
areas with no more than 1000 meters above sea level. On one
hand, thin air conditions at high altitudes will present new
technical requirements for insulation of live working tools. On
the other hand, with higher line voltage level line, larger tower
structure and longer line span, the length and tonnage of the
insulator strings increase, and larger tonnage tools should be
applied correspondingly. Taking these factors into account, in
order to reduce the labor intensity of workers on UHVDC
transmission line at high altitudes, consideration should be
given to improving the portability and versatility of tools.
The replacement of the insulator is the conventional and
important type of working items in the live working on the
transmission line. In this paper, a set of large tonnage live
working tools for the replacement of the 800 kV DC
transmission line insulator is developed. It includes the
titanium alloy tie tool of optimized structure, and the novel
large tonnage soft insulating wire holding tool that meets the
requirements of both the minimum effective insulation length
and the practical mechanical load.
II. DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT
A. Design basis
1) Altitude and meteorological conditions
The influence of altitude conditions must be considered in
the design of live working tools. In this paper, according to the
actual situation in the southwest of china, the altitude
condition is set at 2500 m.
Meteorological conditions are the main basis for the
mechanical design of live working tools. Reasonable choice of
meteorological conditions can improve the versatility of tools
and reduce the weight of tools. Based on the Chinese standard
GB/T18037-2008 [9], the mechanical design of the live
working tool is generally designed according to the three
combinations of meteorological conditions in Table I.
According to the normal weather in winter and the influence
of climate on the live working in the southwest of China, the
weather conditions of Class II (T= 15 v=10m/s) are
chosen for the mechanical strength design of tools.
 TABLE I
COMBINATION OF METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS FOR MECHANICAL DESIGN
Types Minimum Temperature( Maximum Wind Speed(m/s)
25
15
5 10
2) Minimum effective insulation length
The minimum effective insulation length for tools is based
on insulation coordination and determined by the dangerous
rate of live working. In order to calculate it, the relationship
between the flashover distance and the discharge voltage is
required. According to the simplified statistical method
recommended by IEC [10], supposed that the statistical laws
of the transmission line overvoltage and the external insulation
strength are in a normal distribution, the risk of live working is:
1 f
10
10
Fig. 2. Results of the operating impulse discharge tests
So the 50% switching impulse discharge voltage and the
distance of the insulation tool are related as:
U50 575d 0.6 (5)
According to all the formulas above, by calculating the
minimum safety distance is 7.1 m. So the minimum effective
insulation length of the live working tools at an altitude of 2
00 to 2500 m should not be less than 7.1 m.
P U  Pd U  dU
2 0 0
R0 (1)
3) Rated load
P0(U) is the probability density function of overvoltage (a) The rated load of the tool for replacing the tension
amplitude of the transmission line. Pd(U) is the discharge insulator
probability distribution function of the air gap. It can be The tools for replacing the tension insulator include shut-
obtained from the 50% switching impulse discharge voltage. type tie tool (front and back), end tie tool (wire and crossbar),
1 U U 50 2 and tightening device. Their rated load can be calculated by
 (
U 1 )

2 Vd
Pd (U ) e dU
0 V d 2S
On the basis that R0 < 10-5, the minimum effective insulation
length for live working tools can be determined.
The impact of altitude should also be considered. In this
paper, altitude correction factors are based on the formula
recommended by GB / T 18037-2008:
1 The vertical span is the horizontal distance between the
Ka
1.0  mH u 10 4
Where, H means altitude (m); m means correction factor
which can be calculated as the following equation.
m = 2.73-0.00153U (1130 kV <U <1588 kV) (4)
The operating impulse discharge characteristics of the live
working insulating tool are obtained by experiments. Connect
one end of the insulated tool to the upper cross arm and the
other end to the test conductor. Adjust the distance between
the upper cross arm and the test conductor of 4.0m, 4.8m,
5.6m, 6.4m and 7.2m in turn, and carry out the switching
impulse discharge tests. The test site and the results are
respectively shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2.
cross arm
(2) the following equation.
36 Q6V G Q7 (6)
Where, Ps is the rated load (kN); S is the across-sectional
area of a conductor (mm2); n is the number of wires acting on
the tool; d is the conductor stress during live working (MP a);
T is the conductor tension during live working (kN).
(b) The rated load of the tool for the suspension insulator
(3)
lowest points of the conductors on both sides of the tower. The
typical line has a maximum vertical span of Lcm.
To simplify the calculation, the vertical load G and the
horizontal load P in the maximum vertical span are used to
determine the rated load of wire holding tools.
The vertical load G is calculated by the weight ratio of the
wire g1.
G g1 Lcm (7)
The horizontal load P is calculated according to wind load
ratio g2 (according to the wind speed of 10 m/s).
P g 2 Lcm (8)
During live working, the bearing force tool will take the
place of the insulator in bearing the horizontal load and the
wire vertical load. The force situation of the insulator is shown
in the Fig. 3.

insulating tool
tower body insulator string

test conductor

Fig. 3. Force situation of insulator

Fig. 1. Test site of the operating impulse discharge characteristics

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 The weight of workers and the weight of insulator and some C. Large-tonnage high-strength soft insulating wire holding
gold fittings are ignored. So the rated load of wire holding tool
tools Qs is equal to the vector sum of The vertical load G and To replace the suspension insulator strings, the traditional
the horizontal load P. It is shown in the following equation. live working method used the hard insulated tension pole to
transfer the mechanical load of the insulator strings. But the
QS P 2 G 2 (9) insulator strings in the UHVDC line are more than 10 meters
in length. It is difficult and laborious to transfer the hard
B. Large tonnage insulator holder insulated tension pole. In this paper a soft insulating wire
The commonly used materials for the insulator holder are holding tool is developed to replace the hard one.
shown in the Table 2. A BN-b-type fiber is used as inner core insulation to
TABLE II withstand tension and its moisture absorption is low (0.6%). It
PERFORMANCE COMPARISON OF SEVERAL COMMON MATERIALS has been widely used in aviation, aerospace, military,
Materials Tensile Strength (MPa)
Yield Strength electromechanical, textile and many other fields. The BN-type
(MPa) bearing rod means a rope made of BN-b type fiber. The
Ly12 390 295
LC4 490 412
traditional method to make insulation rope production is
TC4 902 824 weaving the silk, nylon fiber into a line, and then twisting into
40Cr 980 780 a rope. The BN-type bearing rod can also be produced by this
kind of method. Although the tensile strength decreases with
It can be seen from Table II that the mechanical strength of increasing diameter which is about 15% to 20% of the fiber
40Cr, LC4, and TC4 are high. LC4 has the smallest proportion, strength, its specific strength is still much higher than the same
but its mechanical properties (tensile strength and yield type of material. The comparison of mechanical properties
strength) are much smaller than the steel 40Cr and titanium between the BN-type bearing rod and the others is shown in
alloy TC4 (almost half of them). For large tonnage tie tool, the following Table III.
LC4 would make them a much bigger size, requiring TABLE III
COMPARISON OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
redundant space and energy. The mechanical properties of Proportion Tensile Strength Specific
40Cr and TC4 are similar, but the 40Crs proportion is 1.8 Names
(g/cm3) (MPa) Strength( MPa)
times higher than the TC4s. Its obvious that 40Cr is not BN-type
1.3 1000 770
suitable. Although the proportion of TC4 is 1.6 times higher rope
than the LC4, its mechanical properties are all 2 times higher Hard-filled
2.165 600 277
tube a
than the LC4.The tie tool made of TC4 will have half the Hard-filled
dimensions (except for the length) of the one made of LC4. It 2.212 600 270
tube b
is much lighter, smaller and requires a small installation space. Hard pull
1.9 300 158
So when it comes to the large tonnage tie tool used at high plate
HJS-14 rope 1.44 130 90
altitudes, TC4 is the best choice which can reduce much
GJS-14 rope 1.5 260 173
workload for workers.
Titanium alloy has the following processing characteristics:
At the same time, BW-type composite material is used to
(1) small deformation coefficient; (2) high cutting temperature;
protect the inner core bearing material. This kind of material
(3) Saw-tooth-like cutting shape; (4) crescent-shaped tool
has excellent electrical performance of anti-aging, plasticity,
wear; (5) sticking phenomenon. On consideration of all the
with high flexibility.
characteristics, wire cutting is used to process the tools which
This soft insulation pull rod is a new product combined
will left a smooth parts surface and guarantee the mechanical
high-performance fiber with synthetic resin. According to the
properties of TC4.
previous calculation of the rated load, basic technical
The assembly structure of shut-type tie tool is shown in Fig.
parameters of the soft insulation pull rod are shown in the
4 and Fig. 5. It is used to replace a single-chip insulator which
Table IV. It shows that the maximum rated load is 100 kN,
is in the larger tonnage of 2 530 kN tension insulator string.
and that the minimum insulation length of tools is 12.25 m
The main material is titanium TC4 and its rated load is 140 kN.
which is greater than the minimum effective insulation length
of 7.1 m.
TABLE IV
BASIC TECHNICAL PARAMETERS OF SOFT INSULATION LINE-LIFT TOOLS
Insulator String Category Insulation Length (m) Rated Load (kN)
2210 kN single V 12.25 60
2300 kN single V 12.35 80
2400 kN single V 12.45 100
2300 kN double V 12.45 50
2400 kN double V 12.55 60
Fig. 4. Assembly drawing Fig. 5. Model diagram
of shut-type tie tool of shut-type ftie tool III. TESTS

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To further verify the performance requirements of working
tools, according to the relevant provisions of the power safety
regulations, the electrical and mechanical properties of the soft
insulating wire holding tool are tested, and only mechanical
performance tests are carried out for the shut-type tie tool.
The electrical performance tests include the DC voltage
withstand test and the operating impulse withstand voltage test.
The mechanical performance tests include static, dynamic load
test and destructive test. Taking into account material
properties, type test conditions, and working conditions of the
high-altitude areas 800 kV UHVDC transmission lines live
working tools, the mechanical damage factor of the tool is not
less than 3.
The soft insulating wire holding tools with insulation length
of 12.35 m and rated mechanical load of 80 kN are used as test
samples to carry out the electrical and mechanical tests for
800 kV UHVDC soft insulating wire holding tool as shown
in Fig. 6. Electrical and mechanical test items and results are
shown in Table V.
i) Electrical tests ii) Mechanical tests
Fig. 6. Test site of the soft insulating wire holding tool
The test results are shown in Table VI. From the test results,
the damage factor of the shut-type tie tool is 3.25 ~ 3.64,
meeting the requirements that the damage factor should be
greater than 3.
TABLE VI
TEST DATA OF TIE TOOL FOR REPLACING SINGLE TENSION INSULATOR
No. Rated Load, kN Destructive Load, kN Results
1 140 455 deformation
2 140 509 deformation
3 140 478 deformation
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, according to the characteristics of 800 kV
UHVDC transmission lines at an altitude of 2500 meters, a set
of large tonnage live working tools for the replacement of the
800 kV DC transmission lines insulator is developed. It
includes the titanium alloy tie tool of optimized structure and
the novel large tonnage soft insulating wire holding tool.
z The minimum effective insulation length of the live
working tools is 7.1 meters by calculation. The rated load of
shut-type tie tool is 140 kN and the maximum rated load of the
wire holding tool is 100 kN, according to the parameters of
large tonnage insulator.
z Titanium alloy TC4 is used as a new material to
make large tonnage tie tool of lighter weight and greater
strength.
z The new synthetic fiber material and the new
technical parameter values are used to make a novel soft
insulating wire holding tool, which finally is validated by
experiment.

TABLE V REFERENCES
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No distortion or Conference on System Safety, Sep, 2010.
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[5] HU Yi, HU Jian-xun, LIU Kai, et al, Field strength of body surface
during the live working on the UHV AC and DC transmission lines,
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is as follows. [6] LIU Hongzheng, LIU Kai, MENG Hailei, et al, Research on minimum
Firstly, increase the load from 0 to the rated value. Maintain approach distance for live working on 660kV DC transmission line,
Power System Technology, vol. 35, pp.183-189, Nov 2011.
5 minutes before unloading to 0. Check the deformation. If in [7] XIAO Yong, Fan Ling-meng, Analysis of live working on Yun-Guang
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Secondly, increase the load from 0 to the dynamic test load pp.2206-2211, Sep 2010.
(1.5 times of the rated load). Check the deformation. If in [8] HU Chuan, W X Xiang, X L Shen, et al, Development and application
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to 0. Check the deformation. If in good condition, go to the [10] IEC 60664-1-2007, Insulation Coordination, 2007.
next step.
Finally, increase the load from 0 to the static test load.
Uniform load slow until any part of the tie tool damages.

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