Ice flashover performance and its characterization parameter of composite insulator with booster sheds

In order to investigate the ice flashover performance and characterization parameter of composite insulators, numerical calculation was applied to simulate the icicle growth and make comparison with different structures. It was found that the number of booster sheds existed an optimized range and saturated icicle bridged degree of big sheds or booster sheds could be considered as the characterization parameter to reflect the ice flashover voltage. Booster sheds applied to 500 kV composite insulators show its advantage on anti-icing performance. However, when design for lower structural height insulators, such as 110 kV composite insulators, excessive booster sheds could form a shorter flashover path. Experiments show there is a good corresponding relation between flashover voltage and saturated icicle bridged degree. Moreover, when applied to 500 kV composite insulators, saturated icicle bridged degree of big sheds dominated the flashover process, while the value of booster sheds played more important role for 110 kV samples.