Study on the flashover performance of an anti‐thunder composite insulator under ice accretion conditions for a 10 kV distribution line.

In this paper, an anti‐thunder composite insulator combining an arrester and an insulator is developed and applied to 10‐kV distribution line. The anti‐thunder composite insulator is divided into an insulation section and a lightning protection section. The flashover performance of the anti‐thunder composite insulator and an ordinary composite insulator under ice accretion conditions are experimentally analyzed. The relationship between the icing thickness (d) and the flashover voltage is derived under the contaminated condition of 0.25 mg/cm2 salt density. With the increase of d, the effect of icing on the breakdown voltage of the anti‐thunder composite insulator is less than that of an ordinary composite insulator. When d increases from 2 to 12 mm, the breakdown flashover voltage of the anti‐thunder composite insulator and the ordinary composite insulator drops by 40.0 and 61.9%, respectively. Based on the simulation model, the potential and electric field distribution of the anti‐thunder composite insulator are analyzed. Our simulation and experimental results indicate that the proportion of the potential of the insulation section is more than 90% under the rated voltage. Based on the analysis, it is concluded that the anti‐ice flash performance of the insulation section has an important influence on the flashover performance of the anti‐thunder composite insulator and that an appropriate increase of AC reference voltage of the anti‐thunder composite insulator will be an effective method to promote the stability of the internal zinc oxide varistor under ice accretion conditions. © 2018 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]