Experimental study of pollution and simulation on insulators using COMSOL® under AC voltage

The flashover of pollution, observed on the insulators used in high voltage transmission, is one of the most important power transmission stakes. It is a very complex problem due to several factors including the modelling difficulties of complex shapes of insulators, different pollution densities at different regions, non-homogeneous pollution distribution on the insulator surface and unknown effect of humidity on the pollution. In the literature, some static and dynamic models have been developed by making some assumptions and omissions to predict the flashover voltages of polluted insulators.