Power Transmission,

Distribution and Utilization

(EE-418)

Engr. Muhammad Abubakar

Lecturer

18-Feb-20 EE-418: PTDU 1

MECHANICAL DESIGN OF
OVERHEAD TRANSMISSION LINES
Lecture# 05

Chapter 9 from Book: Power Transmission System Engineering

Analysis and design,2nd edition, T. Gonen

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Introduction
In this lecture we will cover;
1) Types of Insulators.
1. PIN type Insulators.
2. Suspension type Insulators.
3. Strain Insulators.
2) Causes of Insulation failure.

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Insulators
Chapter 9 from Book: Power Transmission System Engineering Analysis and
design,2nd edition, T. Gonen

18-Feb-20 EE-418: PTDU 4

Insulators
 They provide necessary insulation between line conductors and
supports preventing any leakage current from conductors to earth.
 In general, they should have the following desirable properties:
1. High mechanical strength to withstand conductor load, wind load etc.
2. High electrical resistance of insulator material in order to avoid leakage
currents to earth.
3. High relative permittivity in order that dielectric strength is high.
4. The insulator material should be non-porous, free from impurities and
cracks otherwise the permittivity will be lowered.
5. High safety factor: High ratio of puncture strength to flashover.
 The most commonly used material for insulators of overhead line is
porcelain but glass, steatite and special composition materials are
also used to a limited extent .

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Pin Type Insulators
 As the name suggests, the pin type insulator is screwed to the
cross-arm on the pole.
 There is a groove on the upper end of the insulator for housing
the conductor. The conductor passes through this groove and is
bound by the annealed wire of the same material as the
conductor.

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Pin Type Insulators
 Pin type insulator can be one part, two parts or three parts type,
depending upon application voltage.
 In 11KV system we generally use one part type insulator where
whole pin insulator is one piece of properly shaped porcelain or
glass.
 As the leakage path of insulator is through its surface, it is
desirable to increase the vertical length of the insulator surface
area for lengthening leakage path.
 In order to obtain lengthy leakage path, one, two or more rain
sheds are provided on the insulator body.

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Pin Type Insulators
 In higher voltage like 33KV and 66KV manufacturing of one part
porcelain pin insulator becomes difficult.
 Because in higher voltage, the thickness of the insulator becomes
more and a quite thick single piece porcelain insulator can not be
manufactured practically.
 In this case we use multiple part pin insulator, where a number of
properly designed porcelain shells are fixed together by Portland
cement to form one complete insulator unit.
 For 33KV two parts and for 66KV three parts pin insulator are
generally used .
 Beyond operating voltage of 33 kV, the pin type insulators become
too bulky and hence uneconomical.

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Suspension Type Insulators
 Pin type insulator is not economical beyond 33kV.
 For high voltages (> 33kV), it is a usual practice to use suspension
type insulators.
 They consist of a number of porcelain discs connected in series by
metal links in the form of a string.
 The conductor is suspended at the bottom end of this string while the
other end of the string is screwed to the cross-arm of the tower.
 Each unit or disc is designed for a specific low voltage, say 11kV.
 The number of discs in series would obviously depend upon the
working voltage (6 for 66kV).

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Suspension Type Insulators
 Advantages
1. Cheaper than pin type insulators for voltages > 33kV.
2. Depending upon the working voltage, the desired number of discs can
be connected in series.
3. A damaged disc can be replaced by the sound one.
4. The suspension arrangement provides greater flexibility to the line.
The connection at the cross arm is such that insulator string is free to
swing in any direction and can automatically take up the position
where mechanical stresses are minimum.

18-Feb-20 EE-418: PTDU 10

Suspension Type Insulators
 Advantages
1. Additional insulation required for the raised voltage can be easily
obtained in the suspension arrangement by adding the desired
number of discs.
2. The suspension type insulators are generally used with steel towers. As
the conductors run below the earthed cross-arm of the tower,
therefore, this arrangement provides partial protection from lightning.

18-Feb-20 EE-418: PTDU 11

Strain Insulators
 When there is a dead end of the line or there is corner or sharp
curve, the line is subjected to greater tension.
 In order to relieve the line of excessive tension, strain insulators
are used.
 For low voltage lines (< 11kV), shackle insulators are used as
strain insulators.
 However, for high voltage transmission lines, strain insulator
consists of an assembly of suspension insulators.
 When the tension in lines is exceedingly high, two or more
strings are used in parallel.

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Strain Insulators

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Strain Insulators
 In early days, the shackle insulators were used as strain
insulators.
 Now a days, they are frequently used for low voltage distribution
lines. Such insulators can be used either in a horizontal position
or in a vertical position.
 Directly fixed to the pole with a bolt or to the cross arm.
 The conductor in the groove is fixed with a soft binding wire.

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Causes of Insulation Failures
 Insulators are required to withstand both mechanical and electrical
stresses. The latter type is primarily due to line voltage or due to
lightening stroke and may cause the breakdown of the insulator.
 The electrical breakdown of the insulator can occur either by flash-
over or puncture.
 A flashover arc is a breakdown and conduction of the air around or
along the surface of the insulator, causing an arc along the outside of
the insulator. They are usually designed to withstand this without
damage.
 Flashover voltage is the voltage that causes a flash-over arc.
 In case of flash-over, the insulator will continue to act in its proper
capacity unless extreme heat produced by the arc destroys it.

18-Feb-20 EE-418: PTDU 15

Causes of Insulation Failures
 In case of puncture, the discharge occurs from conductor to pin through the body
of the insulator.
 When such breakdown is involved, the insulator is permanently destroyed due to
excessive heat.
 Most high voltage insulators are designed with a lower flashover voltage than
puncture voltage, so they flash over before they puncture, to avoid damage.
 The ratio of puncture strength to flash over voltage is known as safety factor i.e.,

 It is desirable that the value of safety factor is high so that flash-over takes place
before the insulator gets punctured. For pin type insulators, the value of safety
factor is about 10.

18-Feb-20 EE-418: PTDU 16

Causes of Insulation Failures
 Each disc forms a capacitor C known as mutual capacitance or
self-capacitance (Figure-i on next slide).
 If there were mutual capacitance alone, then voltage across each
unit would have been V/3 (In case there are 3 strings).
 In actual practice, capacitance also exists between metal fitting
of each disc and tower or earth. This is known as shunt
capacitance C1 (Figure iii)
 Due to shunt capacitance, charging current is not the same
through all the discs of the string, hence, voltage across each
disc will be different.

18-Feb-20 EE-418: PTDU 17

Causes of Insulation Failures
 Disc nearest to the line conductor will have the maximum voltage (V3
will be much more than V2 or V1).
 The unit nearest to the conductor is under maximum electrical stress
and is likely to be punctured. Therefore, means must be provided to
equalize the potential across each unit.

18-Feb-20 EE-418: PTDU 18

String Efficiency
 This unequal potential distribution is undesirable and is usually
expressed in terms of string efficiency defined as:

 Where “n” is equal to number of discs in the string.

 100% string efficiency is an ideal case for which the voltage
across each disc will be exactly the same.
 Although it is impossible to achieve 100% string efficiency, yet
efforts should be made to improve it as close to this value as
possible.

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String Efficiency

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String Efficiency

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String Efficiency

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String Efficiency

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String Efficiency

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String Efficiency

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String Efficiency

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String Efficiency

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