IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 21, No.

6; December 2014 2541

Charge Simulation Based Electric Field Analysis

of Composite Insulators for HVDC Lines
Jiahong He and Ravi S. Gorur
School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona, USA

ABSTRACT
This paper illustrates a charge simulation method based computation of electric
potential and field of composite insulators for HVDC lines. The electric field is
calculated under both dry and wet conditions and compared to AC line insulators. The
results indicate that for the same nominal voltage, the electric field for DC lines is
higher than for ac lines, thereby necessitating larger field control devices (corona and
grading rings) for DC insulators. A process for optimizing corona and grading ring
dimensions is described and applied for 500 kV HVDC lines.

Index Terms - charge simulation method, wet surface, aging, surface resistivity,
HVAC, HVDC, corona ring, grading ring.

1 INTRODUCTION rings (radius, thickness and placement along the insulator)

HIGH voltage direct current (HVDC) technology has
advantages of higher transmission capability and lower losses
when compared to AC systems and they are becoming
economically attractive for long distance overhead
transmission. There are many HVDC projects that are
operating presently, and several more are being constructed or
in the planning stages worldwide [1].
Insulators are used to mechanically support conductors as
well as electrically isolate them from ground [2]. Composite
insulators are gaining popularity over conventional porcelain
and glass insulators for reasons of light weight and good
performance under contaminated conditions. Due to the
unipolar nature of the applied voltage which helps in
increasing contamination accumulation, insulators on DC lines
can experience more problems when compared to AC lines in
polluted regions. Corona occurs when the localized electric field
exceeds the ionization threshold of air and results in energy loss,
radio and television interference [3]. For composite insulators,
corona can result in material degradation and premature failures
and therefore must be eliminated.
Metal rings are attached to the composite insulator end-fittings
to minimize corona at the critical triple-point junctions of
fiberglass core, housing and hardware. For insulators used in
EHV and UHV lines (345 kV and higher) it is common to use
corona rings at both terminals of the insulator. In addition, large
rings (also referred to as grading rings) on multiple insulator
assemblies may be needed at the line-end for reducing audible
noise, radio and television interference. The dimensions of these
Manuscript received on 31 December 2013, in final form 19 May 2014,
accepted 21 May 2014.
control the electric field near the critical regions and therefore
must be determined with care.
Commercial packages are available for electric field
calculation. These are based on techniques such as the boundary
element, finite element, finite difference or Monte Carlo methods
[4]. The basic equations for modeling insulators with AC are
well documented and the packages can be used for insulator
design. In contrast, not much has been published on calculations
of electric field under DC and when the insulator is wet. This
paper makes an attempt to address these shortcomings.
Laboratory experiments are also used for insulator design.
Since the experiments are time-consuming and expensive,
simulations are often conducted first to optimize the insulator
design and then verified in the laboratory.
The Charge Simulation Method (CSM) was introduced for
electric field calculations by Singer. Point, line and ring
charges were utilized [5]. Takuma then improved the method
by introducing fictitious charges to calculate the capacitive-
resistive fields with AC [6-7]. Malik reviewed the CSM
application, and modified it by using the least square method
to minimize the errors [8]. It has been shown that for
insulators that are rotationally symmetric, CSM has certain
advantages over other numerical methods in terms of
computational complexity [9]. However, on wet surfaces, the
discrete water droplets on the insulator are not symmetric, and
hence, have to be modeled in three dimensions. EI-Kishky
used CSM to model the electric field of hydrophobic surfaces
[10-11]. Due to the unsymmetrical characteristics, point
charges were used, and this increased computation time. Thus,
only small samples were modeled. This paper explores the
possibility of using this method to model large insulators such
as those used for HVAC and HVDC lines.

DOI 10.1109/TDEI.2014.004541
2542 J. He and R. S. Gorur: Charge Simulation Based Electric Field Analysis of Composite Insulators for HVDC Lines

2 MODELING DETAILS Table 1. Dry arc distance of insulators at 500 kV.

For AC, each insulator shed or unit is modeled as a Type of insulator Dry arc distance (mm)
capacitor in parallel with a resistor shown in Figure 1. AC 5000
DC 6250

The relative permittivity of fiber glass and rubber was

selected as 3.7 and 3.5, respectively, based on published
literature [16].

Figure 1. Insulator model with AC.

In the model, Ic is the capacitive current caused by 60 Hz (low
frequency) voltage [12] and Ir is the current caused by wet surface
layer [13]. Therefore, the total current It in the steady state,
It  I c  I r (1)
Figure 2 shows the model used for each insulator shed for
DC. When the voltage is applied, the polarization realigns
molecules which results in a dielectric absorption current Ida.
Figure 3. Schematic of insulator model.
Ida is simulated by an extra capacitor and falls to zero in
several minutes, when the realignment process is finished. Ring charges were utilized under dry conditions, since the
Like Ida, the capacitive current Ic also reduces quickly to zero insulator is rotationally symmetric. The distribution of charges
with DC. Hence, the total current It in steady state is, and contour points in the electrode and dielectric are shown in
Figures 4 and 5, respectively.
It  I r (2)

Figure 4. Charges and contour points in the electrode.

Figure 2. Insulator model with DC.

Therefore, the electric potential and field distribution is
dominated by the surface resistivity and static field
characteristics. Under dry conditions, surface resistivity is
large enough. Hence, the electric field along the insulator is
close to DC static field. Under wet conditions, the surface
resistivity reduces and determines the field distribution [14].
In actual insulators the electric field is determined by factors
such as the details of hardware assemblies, tower and conductor
arrangements, in addition to insulator dimensions. As the purpose Figure 5. Simulated charges and contour points arrangement in the insulator.
of this paper is to develop the essential modeling details for The spacing between charges and contour points was varied
HVDC electric field calculation, the insulator model is simplified from 0.05 cm to 1 cm. Check points were selected for
in order to accomplish the goal in a reasonable time. The determining the error in computation and calculated by the
composite insulator is modeled as a cylindrical rod with two least square method [17].
circular electrodes as shown in Figure 3. The length of the
Error  min || PQ  V || (3)
insulator modeled is the dry arc distance of presently used
insulators for 500 kV AC and DC lines and is shown in Table 1 Where, P is potential coefficient matrix, Q is calculated charge
[15]. The diameter of the rod and thickness of the rubber housing matrix and V is the electric potential at the check points. Some
used corresponds to that commonly used for 500 kV systems. errors are expected due to the discrete natural of charges and
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 21, No. 6; December 2014 2543
th
their placement. To minimize error to less than 5%, sufficiently normal flux density coefficients between i contour point and
large number charges (5160) were used. The spacing between jth simulated charge. σ is the charge density at ith contour point
charges of 0.25 cm was found to be adequate [8]. of the rod model.
Under wet conditions, both point and ring charges were Under dry conditions, the surface resistivity is very high
utilized due to the unsymmetrical characteristics of water and leakage current is zero.
droplets. The water droplets were modeled as spheres of 0.125
I r (t )  0 (10)
cm radius. The geometry of each water droplet and charge
arrangement is shown in Figure 6. With AC,
Y 1
S
 (i )  I c (t ) dt (11)

[V (i  1)  V (i )]  [V (i )  V (i  1)] (12)
I c (t ) 
jC
0.125cm
V (i  1)  V (i  1)  2V (i )
θ 
X jC
(x0 ,y0 ,z0 )
V(i) represents the potential at ith contour point. C is the
capacitance between two contour points; ω is the angular
Insulator surface frequency and S surface area between contour points.
Z
Under wet conditions, on the electrode and air interface, the
Point charges
Sphere Contour points
charges in the electrode, solid dielectric and water droplets
must satisfy,
Figure 6. Contour points and charges arrangements in one water droplet.
ne  ni  nw
The equation in rectangular Cartesian Coordinates to  Pij Q j  V (13)
describe the sphere is: j 1

( x  x0 ) 2 ( y  y0 ) 2 ( z  z0 ) 2 On the electrode and insulator interface, the effect of

  1 (4)
a2 a2 a2 charges in the electrode, charges in the air and charges in the
water droplets must satisfy,
Where radius a is 0.125 cm and the angle θ is 30°. ne  na  nw

Each case (dry and wet) has different potential and flux  j 1
Pij Q j  V (14)
density boundary conditions. The equations are formulated as,
[ P ][Q ]  [V ] (5) To establish potential and normal flux density continuity on
the insulator-air interface, the effect of charges in the
P is the m×n coefficient matrix, Q is the n×1 unknown electrode, charges in the insulator, charges in the air and
simulating charge matrix and V is the m×1 electric potential charges in the water droplets must satisfy,
matrix at the contour points. na ni

Charges in the electrode are defined as ne, while ni, and na PQ PQ
j 1
ij j
j 1
ij j 0 (15)
represent charges in the insulator and air respectively. nw ne  nw na ni
represents all the charges in the water droplets. ( i   a )  f ij Q j   i  fij Q j   a  f ij Q j   (i ) (16)
The potential and flux density under dry conditions must j 1 j 1 j 1

satisfy [5], Similarly, the potential and normal flux density continuity
On the electrode and air interface, on the insulator-water interface should be satisfied by
ne  ni following equations:
 PQ ij j V (6) nw  na ni
j 1
 PQ PQ ij j ij j 0 (17)
On the electrode and insulator interface, j 1 j 1

ne  na ne  na ni nw

 PQ ij j V (7) ( w   i )  f ij Q j   w  f ij Q j   i  f ij Q j   (i ) (18)
j 1 j 1 j 1 j 1

On the insulator and air interface, Meanwhile, potential and normal flux density continuity on
na ni the air-water interface should be satisfied by following
PQ PQ
j 1
ij j
j 1
ij j 0 (8) equations:
nw
ne na ni
( i   a ) fij Q j   i  fij Q j   a  fij Q j   (i ) (9) PQ
j 1
ij j 0 (19)
j 1 j 1 j 1
ne  ni na nw
where V stands for electrode voltage, εi and εa represent the ( w   a )  f ij Q j   w  fij Q j   a  fij Q j  0 (20)
permittivity of insulator and air. Pij and fij are the potential and j 1 j 1 j 1
2544 J. He and R. S. Gorur: Charge Simulation Based Electric Field Analysis of Composite Insulators for HVDC Lines

The charge density σ at ith contour point of rod model can

be expressed as [5]: AC voltage
Positive DC voltage
25

Electric field along insulator surface (kV/cm)

1 t
 (i ) 
S 
0
I t (t ) (21) 25

20
20
For wet condition calculations, the surface resistivity ρ was
varied from 105 Ω·m to 1012 Ω·m. As ρ decreased from 1012 15 15

Ω·m to 105 Ω·m, the potential distribution curves became

more linear. With surface resistivity of 105 Ω·m, the field 10
10

distribution showed a pure resistive characteristic. Thus, 5

surface resistivity was selected as 108 Ω·m to create a

5
capacitive-resistive field. In this case, the field distribution is 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120

comparable with the results under dry conditions, where

surface resistivity is above 1012 Ω·m [8]. 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
With DC voltage supply, Insulator length (cm)

Figure 8. Normalized AC and DC electric field distribution.

V (i  1)  V (i  1)  2V (i )
I t (t )  I r (t )  (22)
For DC insulator, the density of free electrons with negative
R
DC voltage is higher than it is with positive DC voltage [18-
With AC voltage supply, 19]. Therefore, a higher surface charge density is used for
negative DC insulator in the model based on published
I t (t )  I c (t )  I r (t ) literature [20].
1 1 1
 [V (i  1)  V (i  1)  2V (i )](  ) (23) Positive DC voltage
jC R 0.9 Negative DC voltage
1

0.8
Normalized potential distribution (p.u.)

R is surface resistance, 0.9

0.8


0.7
i
R (24) 0.7
dl
i 1 2 r
0.6 0.6

0.5
0.5
In the equation (24), r is the radius of the cylindrical 0.4

0.4
insulator model. 0.3

0.2
0.3
0.1

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 0.2 0

0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.09 0.1

0.1
3.1 DRY CONDITIONS
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
Figures 7 and 8 show the potential and electric field Insulator length (p.u.)
distribution on the insulator surface for AC and DC excitation. Figure 9. Normalized positive and negative DC potential distribution.
It indicates that the voltage distribution is more nonlinear and
the field strength is about 20% higher with DC when Positive DC voltage
compared to AC, especially near the line end. 25 Negative DC voltage
Electric field along insulator surface(kV/cm)

1 25
AC voltage 20
0.9
Potential distribution along insulator surface (p.u.)

Positive DC voltage
20

0.8
15 Corona threshold
15
0.7

0.6 10 10

0.5 5

5
0.4
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
0.3
0
0.2 0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Insulator length(cm)
0.1 Figure 10. Normalized positive and negative DC electric field distribution.
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 Figures 9 and 10 show that potential and electric field
Insulator length (p.u)
distribution respectively, with the bottom hardware having
Figure 7. Normalized AC and DC potential distribution under dry conditions. positive and negative polarity 500 kV DC, and the top
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 21, No. 6; December 2014 2545

hardware grounded. In order to make the plot clear, the region Table 2. Comparison of computation time and maximum electric field with
different number of water droplet lines
close to HV electrode is enhanced. It indicates that the
potential distributions of positive and negative polarities are Number of Number of Computation Maximum
droplet lines charges time (second) electric field
largely similar, but the negative polarity case produces a (kV/cm)
slightly higher field than the positive polarity case (about
1 38742 863 34.10
10%).
2 44856 1407 34.10
Since the electric field strength of negative polarity is
slightly higher close to HV electrode when compared with 4 57084 2459 35.27
positive polarity, the corona and grading ring design in this 8 81540 4635 36.86
paper is based on the field distribution with negative DC
polarity.
Figures 13 and 14 show the electric field distribution for
3.2 WET CONDITIONS positive and negative DC excitation, respectively for the
Several lines of water droplets as shown in Figure 11 were insulator rod model without corona rings. Figure 15 shows the
selected. The space between the droplets along a line as electric field with AC for comparison. The data in these
shown in Figure 12, and the angular separation φ between the figures is only for the section close to the line end fitting
lines of droplets was varied to determine the impact of where the electric field is higher than other sections. The
neighboring water droplets on the electric field distribution. number of water droplets that could be handled with
reasonable accuracy and computer run time was 1350. The
electric field distribution on the insulator surface for 500 kV
AC lines was calculated and is shown in Figure 15.
In the absence on new data, if the AC streamer threshold on
wet surfaces of 4 kV/cm is used [21], it can be seen from
 Figures 13-15 that discharges can be promoted over a longer
length with DC when compared to AC under wet conditions.
50

40
Electric field along Insulator surface(kV/cm)

30

20

10 Streamer threshold

Figure 11. Top section view of the insulator with various numbers of lines of
0
water droplets on the surface.
-10 Streamer threshold

-20

-30
0 20 40 60 80 100
Insulator length(cm)

Figure 13. Electric field distribution with water droplets on the insulator
surface with +500 kV DC.
50

40
Electric field along Insulator surface(kV/cm)

30

20

Figure 12. Water droplets on the insulator surface. 10 Streamer threshold

The maximum electric field distribution was calculated in

-10 Streamer threshold
each case is shown in Table 2. It can be seen that the
difference in the maximum electric field with one line and 8 -20
lines of water droplets was about 8 %, while the computation
-30
time and number of charges increased significantly with the 0 20 40 60 80 100
Insulator length(cm)
number of water droplet lines. Therefore, only one line of
water droplets was used in the simulation, so that the charges Figure 14. Electric field distribution with water droplets on the insulator
and computation time could be used more efficiently. surface with -500 kV DC.
2546 J. He and R. S. Gorur: Charge Simulation Based Electric Field Analysis of Composite Insulators for HVDC Lines
50 8
8

40 7 7
Electric field along Insulator surface(kV/cm)

Electric field along insulator surface (kV/cm)

30 6
6
5
20
5
4
10 Streamer threshold
4 3

0
3 2

-10 Streamer threshold 1

2
-20 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
1
-30
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55
Insulator length(cm) 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Insulator length (cm)
Figure 15. Electric field distribution with water droplets on the insulator
surface with 500 kV AC. Figure 18. Impact of grading ring tube thickness on field distribution for DC.
6
6
3.3 FIELD CONTROL RINGS OPTIMIZATION
The configuration of corona and grading rings used for

Electric field along insulator surface(kV/cm)

5 5

electric field control is schematically shown in Figure 16. The

radius, thickness and projection of the rings from end fittings 4
4
Projection = 20 cm
are three main factors that determine the effectiveness of 3 Projection = 40 cm
corona and grading rings. These factors are optimized 3 Projection = 80 cm
individually, since they are all independent [22]. The 2
Projection = 60 cm
optimization objective is to limit the maximum electric field 2
strength below corona threshold. 1

0
1 0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Grading ring tube thickness

Corona ring tube thickness 0

0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Insulator length(cm)

Corona ring Figure 19. Impact of projection of grading ring from end fitting on field
Insulator rod model Corona ring radius distribution for DC.
The radius, tube thickness and projection of the corona
rings are set as constants of 10 cm, 5 cm and 0 cm,
End fitting
respectively, based on available literature [23]. Figures 17-19
Grading ring radius
show the results of the optimization of the three factors.
Grading ring
Figure 20 shows the maximum electric field strength as
Corona ring projection functions of the three main factors. Figures 17-20 indicate that
the optimal grading ring radius is 60 cm, tube thickness is 14
Grading ring projection
cm and projection is 60 cm.
Figure 16. Three dimension model of insulator with corona and grading rings. 11
Ring radius
Maximum electric field along Insulator surface (kV/cm)

11 Ring tube thickness

Projection from end fitting
11 10
10
10
Electric field along insulator surface (kV/cm)

9
9
9
8 8

7 7
8
6
6
5
5
4 7
4 3

2
3 6
1
2
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
1 5
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
0 Grading ring dimensions (cm)
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Insulator length (cm)
Figure 20. Maximum electric field strength as functions of grading ring
Figure 17. Impact of grading ring radius on field distribution for DC. dimensions (ring radius, tube thickness and projection).
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 21, No. 6; December 2014 2547

The electric field distribution with optimized corona and 5

Corona threshold
grading rings is shown in Figure 21. 4

Electric field along insulator surface(kV/cm)

3

16 Corona threshold
2
Electric field along insulator surface(kV/cm)

14 1

12 0

-1
10
-2
8
-3
6
-4
Corona threshold
4
-5
0 15 30 45 60
2 Insulator length(cm)

0 Figure 23. Electric field distribution of HVDC insulators with optimized

0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Insulator length(cm)
grading ring.

Figure 23 shows the electric field distribution under wet

Figure 21. Electric field distribution along insulator surface with optimized
corona and grading rings. conditions of the HVDC insulator with optimized corona and
grading rings. The reduction in electric field in the region of
The grading ring dimensions of 500 kV AC insulator under the insulator close to the line end hardware is evident. Other
dry conditions has been optimized and published in a recent factors like tower dimensions, bundled conductor
paper [15]. The optimal ring radius, tube thickness and arrangements must be considered in the design of the field
projection were 55 cm, 10 cm and 40 cm, respectively, and control hardware assembly. These have been ignored in this
therefore in fairly good agreement with the present results. paper as the goal is to illustrate the computational details.
Compared with the HVAC insulator, grading ring radius 4 CONCLUSIONS
and tube thickness of HVDC insulator are slightly larger and
1 This paper illustrates the charge simulation method for
projection from end fitting increases as well. Both ring radius
calculating the electric field and potential distribution of
and tube thickness are dominant factors to impact the field
composite insulators used for HVDC lines under both dry
distribution.
and wet conditions.
The dimensions of grading rings on HVDC insulators were 2 Electric field on the insulator surface for DC lines is higher
optimized under wet conditions and the results are shown in than the field for AC lines for the same nominal voltage.
Figure 22. Therefore, the electric field control hardware devices have
to be larger than for AC.
9
Ring radius
Maximum electric field along Insulator surface (kV/cm)

8.5
Ring tube thickness
Projection from end fitting
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Jiahong He was born in Nanjing, China in 1988.
He received the Bachelor of Science degree in
electric engineering from Hohai University,
Nanjing, China in 2010, and the Master of Science
degree from Arizona State University, Tempe,
USA. His research interests include the electric
field computation using numerical methods in
high voltage insulation area. He is presently a
Ph.D. student working with Prof. Ravi S. Gorur.
Ravi S. Gorur (M’86-SM’91-F’98) is a professor
in the Electrical engineering Department at
Arizona State University (ASU). He has published
a textbook on outdoor insulators and coauthored
over 150 papers in IEEE Journals and
Conferences. He chaired the IEEE Working
Groups on Insulator Contamination and Dielectric
Ageing. He was the chair of a committee that
prepared IEEE standard (P1523) on High Voltage
Insulator Coatings. He served as the US
representative for CIGRE study Committee D1. He was elected to IEEE
fellowship for contribution to aging of polymeric materials used for outdoor
HV insulation.