ESMO-95 CP-08

Aging of Porcelain Suspension Insulators

Under Mechanical and Electrical Stress On
A. S . Jagtiani (Non-Member)
Senior Engineer
AEP Service Corp. - Columbus

EHV

AC Lines

J. R. Booker (Member)
Senior Engineer
AEP Service Corp. - Columbus

Abstract
A small number of failures of standard porcelain suspension insulators used on
American Electric Power CO's (AEP) 765 kV lines were found with the porcelain
shed broken away from the cap and pin assembly, allowing a lldonutll
of porcelain
to fall to the hardware below.
The investigation of these failures was approached from many angles to determine
the sequence of events leading to the failure. Additionally, it was desired to
determine if this phenomena was the result of aging porcelain under electrical
and/or mechanical stress.
1.

Introduction
AEP's older 765 kV lines are designed using 3-phase, 4-conductor bundles
of 954 MCM 45/7 Rail conductors strung in horizontal configuration with
two 7#8 aluminum clad steel ground wires supported at the top. The newer
lines use a bundle of 1351.5 MCM 45/7 ACSR Dipper conductors and two 7#8

aluminum clad steel ground wires. The supporting structures are fourlegged self-supporting steel towers and lattice type guyed "V" aluminum
towers with center grillage foundation and four guys. The typical span is
1400 to 1500 ft. in flat terrain.

65'+/-

Typical Self Supporting Steel Tower

38'+/-

Typical Guyed "V" Aluminum Tower

80
0-7803-2506-0/95/$4.00 01995 IEEE

The 1 8 " center-to-center square bundle of four conductors is supported by

a "VII string insulator hardware assembly using either single or double
strings (depending on load) in each leg of the 8fVrTstring. The outside
phase insulator hardware assemblies use thirty 1OVqx5Xr1, 2 5 , 0 0 0 lbs. or
3 6 , 0 0 0 lbs. M&E strength ball-and-socket porcelain suspension insulators.
The middle phase assembly uses thirty-two 1 0 f l x5%11 insulators. No corona
rings are used on suspension assemblies.
The dead-end insulator hardware assemblies use four horizontal strings of
thirty-four 1O"x 5%11 36,000 lbs. strength porcelain ball-and-socket
suspension insulators for 1fRai181
conductor, and thirty-two ll%rfx6Ur1
5 0 , 0 0 0 lb. strength for "Dipper" conductor. Both these dead-end hardware
assemblies include corona rings.
The study on the donut type failure has been under way for 2% years at
this writing, beginning after the discovery of a broken insulator by a
line crew during their regular maintenance inspection of AEP system's
Gavin-Marysville 765 kV line. Although there was no instance of phase
conductor(s) dropping to the ground, the very nature of this type of
failure was intriguing and prompted AEP's transmission line engineers to
investigate the cause ( s ) .
To keep things in proper perspective, there are approximately 2 0 0 0 miles
of 765 kV lines on the AEP System, of which approximately 1 2 0 0 miles have
been in service for 2 0 - 2 4
years.
There are approximately
1,400,000 10flx
53Art ball-and-socket porcelain suspension insulators in use
on these older lines.
So far 2 1 insulators out of 1,400,000 have exhibited this problem to one
degree or another. On a percentage basis this would amount to about
.0015% of the total population of insulators on these strings.
2.

TESTS

A test program consisting of various electrical and mechanical tests was

started in cooperation with the insulator manufacturers. Both destructive
and non-destructive tests were undertaken. Some continue as of this
writing.
2a.

The Electrical Tests

Approximately 1100 sample insulators of 2 5 , 0 0 0 lbs. and 36,000 lbs. (M&E)
rating were removed from both outside and middle phases of '765 kV lines.
After the insulators were removed, all were marked to indicate the tower
they were removed from, the date of their removal, and their location in
the string, with I11l1indicating the top unit next to the tower, and 1130",
1131", and s 3 2 f 1 closer to the energized conductor. All the insulators were
sent to AEP'S John E. Dolan Engineering Laboratory in Groveport, Ohio.
When the insulators were received at the Dolan Laboratory, the insulators
were visually inspected for any obvious manufacturing defects or any
damage from handling.
All the insulators were flashed over at 60 Hz to detect any cracks or
punctures in the porcelain. Three hundred insulators were then selected
for an oil puncture test performed as per ANSI C 2 9 . 1 Standard. The
puncture voltage was recorded.
Test data has been grouped in the following manner for display: Insulators
1 through 2 8 were treated as one large group while data from insulator
numbers 29, 30, 31, and 32 were analyzed by position. This grouping was
done to show the divergence of the characteristics of the insulators near
the energized conductor from those of the remaining units.

180

170

am
$2 160

n=24

>"

2! 150

3
+
0

LT

a,

n = size of sample

140
130

#I
-28

#29
#30
#31
Position in String

#32

Graph 1

Graph 1 shows the oil puncture voltage of grouped insulators. Note the
decrease in puncture voltage toward the energized end of the string.
2B.

Dissipation Factor
Dissipation factor was measured on several insulator strings. Graph 2A
shows the resulting data for one complete "V" string, demonstrating an
increase in dissipation factor at both the energized and the ground ends.
Similar measurements were recorded at one manufacturer's laboratory. For
reference, the dissipation factor was also measured on eight insulators
from stock, which were of similar age, type and manufacturer, but had
never been energized. These units tested in the 2 . 8 to 3.0% range. Graph
2B shows the typical change in dissipation factor with respect to
temperature on one sample.

16

Position in String
82

Graph 2A

32

-a

20

40

TEMPERATURE

80

In

1M)

120

140

OF

Graph 2B

2C.

Punctured Insulator Detection (PID) Test

A PID instrument was used to locate punctured or partially cracked
insulators on in-service, energized lines. The towers where this device
was used were picked partially at random and partially near roads for easy
access. The device is attached to a hot stick and moved first down and
then back up the energized insulator string while the operator stands on
the tower. As it is moved, an internal computer records the electric
field magnitude each time an insulator shed passes. The data is later
plotted to show the relative field magnitude for each insulator on both
the downward and upward traverses. The normal curve looks like a smooth
with a high at the energized end, low toward the center and a
llnecklacell,
lesser high at the ground end of the string. If there is a punctured
insulator, the curve makes a sharp downward discontinuity at that point,
indicating the change in the electric field. Using this device on just
under 5,000 insulators, one electrically failed unit was located and
removed and subsequently examined with the other failures.

Graph 3

Graph 3 shows the curves generated using the P I D device. Note the
discontinuity for the insulator in the "17" location. Due to physical
interference, the first and last insulators in the string are not included
in the measurement.
2D.

X-Ray Examinations
As part of the investigation, seven insulators were X-rayed. One of the
seven units was previously subjected to the oil-puncture test, two units
were field punctured units and the remaining four were believed to be
highly stressed units. The X-ray showed that the puncture path did not
follow a straight line between the metal cap on the outside surface to the
metal pin on the inside surface of the porcelain. This puncture path
indicates that the punctures occurred over a period of time following a
path of least resistance while crossing through the porcelain body. There
were no other cracks in the porcelain.
MECHANICAL LOAD TESTS

Over 8 0 0 insulators of 25,000 lbs. and 36,000 lbs. (M&E) strength were
tested mechanically to failure. As was done for oil puncture test data,
the failure load values of the insulators from 1 through 2 8 (position in
the insulator string) were averaged as a group and the test values for
insulator numbers 2 9 , 30, 31, and 32 were averaged separately. The test
values were then plotted on Graph 4 .

84

48
46 0
0
0
7

x
u)

44

42

40

n=size of sample

n=25

CL

n=26

38 36 34

n=33
II

#I
-28

#29
#30
#31
Position in String

#32

Graph 4

Graph

shows a downward trend from insulator 29 toward the energized end.

CONCLUSION

The following conclusions are based on electrical and mechanical tests, X-ray
examinations and observations on approximately 1100 porcelain suspension
insulators over the period of 2% years.
Tests were conducted at two
manufacturers' laboratories and at AEP's John E. Dolan Engineering Laboratory.
It is concluded that the puncture process is the result of a combination of
several factors.
1.

Dielectric losses in insulating materials occur as a result of conduction,

polarization and ionization. Losses increase as the temperature of the
dielectric material increases. Increased losses in turn produce further
increases in the temperature giving rise to the possibility of thermal
runaway and short-term puncture breakdown. For the insulator types under
consideration, this is known to occur at substantially higher voltages
than have been shown to exist across individual insulators in service.

2.

The punctures examined during this study occurred in areas of maximum

electrical stress, normally from the rim of the metal cap to the pin. The
insulators were under lower continuous voltage than is known to cause
short-term breakdown, but had been in service for 20 years or more. It is
postulated that when localized stress exceeds a certain value that
damaging discharges occur that can eventually result in puncture[''.
Whether this is continuous for the service life, or happens in spikes
during times of high stress due to surface contamination and moisture is
not known. It would, however, be dependent on anomalies in the insulator
construction which cause localized intensified stress such as eccentric
pin position or a sharp flashing on the cap edge from the casting process.

3.

Once the insulator is punctured, mechanical load, freezing of moisture and

"digging" due to continued arcing appears to lead to circumferential
cracking. This process, however, was not verified in the laboratory
tests.

85

4.

The trends seen in the oil puncture and dissipation factor tests indicate
that long-term high electrical stress affects the electrical properties of
the porcelain over time. The mechanical load-to-failureresults may also
show a physical affect, although less distinct. However the changes due
to long term exposure to electrical stress could not be shown to be the
sole cause of any failure.

5.

The megger tests tend to substantiate that a reduction in dielectric

strength of porcelain occurs under high electrical stress. This change
may be the migration of molecular ions in the porcelain. Results of an
electron microscope inspection of two insulators with varying dissipation
factors at Georgia Technical Research Institute did not support this
hypothesis.

6.

This failure phenomenon may pertain primarily to the insulators which are
weakened either during routine factory tests or during shipping and field
handling prior to their installation.
In addition, localized high
electrical stress is also believed to be caused by variations in the
manufacturing process that leave sharp edges on the metal caps and pins or
which position the pin eccentrically in the porcelain head.

In summary, the failures appear to result from a combination of high electrical

stress on a small percentage of "susceptible" insulators over a long period of
time. A worm-hole puncture is followed by a gradual circumferential crack,
eventually resulting in a full separation of the I1donutf1.Although long-term
effects of high electrical stress on the insulators were indicated, none was
alarming or could be isolated as a factor in the failures.
If similar insulator failure documentation is made by other utilities and the
results compiled, it may be possible to better characterize the failure
mechanism.
References
of Ceramic Insulators", Westinghouse Science and
J.J. Shea, ltPunchthrough
Technology Center.
A. L. Barclay and D. A.Swift, "Cap and Pin Insulators: Electrical Puncture
of Porcelain Under AC Energization, Central Electricity Research
Laboratories, UK.
Final Report of CIGRE Task Force 33.07.01, "Puncture Testing of Ceramic
and Glass Insulators.
Dr. Joannis A. Stathopulos, "Experimental and Theoretical Investigations
on the Puncture of Porcelain Insulators in Air". National Technical
University, Athens, 1982.
Zheng Jianchao, Yu Qing, Chen Xing, "Studies on Influencing Factors to the
Aging of Porcelain Insulators Under DC Stresses". Electric Power Research
Institute, Beijing, China, IEEE CH2587-4/88.
Guy Moulasert, "Arching Tests of High-Voltage String Insulators and The
Correlation of These Tests With Doble Test Resultst1,
Doble, 1994.
G. H. Vallancourt, J. P. Bellerive, M. St-Jean, C. Jean, "New Live Line
Tester For Porcelain Suspension Insulators On High-Voltage Power Lines",
IEEE, 1994.
Standard Test Method or Thermal Failure Under Electric Stress of Solid
Electrical Insulating Materials, ASTM:D3151-79.
R. P. Loose, "Thermal Runaway In Insulatingt1 Canadian Electrical
Association.

86