12-E-PTL-377

A new analytic model to simulate the electrical behavior of

a snow-covered insulator

H. Javadi and M. Farzaneh

NSERC / Hydro-Quebec / UQAC Industrial Chair on Atmospheric Icing of Power Network Equipment (CIGELE) and Canada
Research Chair on Engineering of Power Network Atmospheric Icing (INGIVRE),
Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Chicoutimi, Québec, Canada, G7H 2B1
http://www.cigele.ca

Keyword: Snow, Density, Conductivity, Flashover, Non-linear resistance, Analytic model

caused by ice and snow accumulation causing

Abstract:
One of the most serious problems associated
with snow and ice accumulation is insulator
flashover. Though considerable research has been
done on flashover of ice-covered insulators, there
was relatively little on insulators covered with
snow. So, further research was required on the
electrical behavior of snow-covered insulator to
yield an analytic model of the voltage-current
characteristics of a snow-covered insulator.
Based on experimental work more than one
hundred different tests, the electrical
characteristics of snow were evaluated and a
precise mathematical model for simulating its
behavior under alternating voltage, at 60 Hz
power frequency, was developed. This model
shows that voltage across snow is a logarithmic
function of the leakage current of snow depending
on snow density and conductivity of the water
melted from snow. It was found there is good
concordance between the simulated voltage-
current characteristics of snow and those
obtained experimentally.
1. Introduction
Snow and ice accumulation on electrical
equipment may cause mechanical and electrical
problems or damage to power systems. Damage
short-circuits and consequent power outages has
been reported in many parts of the world [1-2].
However, the major problem under snow and ice
accumulation is insulator flashover, which has
been studied to some extent by researchers in
several countries [3-7]. The cause of these
flashovers is sometimes difficult to identify
afterwards, since the ice and snow usually fall off
the insulators and the auto-reclosing devices can
rapidly clear up most of the faults.
A number of worthwhile experimental
investigations have helped further knowledge on
the effects of ice and snow parameters on the
critical flashover voltage of insulators [8-11] and
have led to the proposal of several mitigation
methods. Understanding the physical
mechanisms, the electrical performance, and the
fundamental theoretical causes of flashover on
snow/ice covered insulators are important to
properly design practical high voltage insulators
exposed to atmospheric conditions. A review of
most of the investigations in this field was
reported in recent publications by IEEE and
CIGRE Task Forces [12-13]. It shows the
necessity of further fundamental and
comprehensive research on the physics of arc and
its electrical behavior on ice surfaces and inside
snow.

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 A new analytic model to simulate the electrical behavior of a snow-covered insulator
20th International Power System Conference

Laboratory tests to study the electrical behavior

of snow and to develop an analytic model for it
are currently being carried out on snow-covered
insulators, within the framework of
CIGELE/INGIVRE at UQAC [14-15]. The main
objective of this study is to observe and determine
the electrical characteristics of snow and to
introduce a precise mathematical model to
simulate its behavior under alternating voltage at
60 Hz power frequency, by taking into account
the effects of the density of snow and conductivity
of water melted from snow.
a) In heating process of snow

2. Factors influencing the electrical

characteristics of snow
Snow is a two-component system made up of
air and ice, and the ice in a snow crystal is not
different from that found in ordinary ice. In the
case of wet snow, it becomes a three-component
system composed of air, ice, and water. It is
treated as a three-phase mixture, the ice and water
particles considered to be inclusions embedded in
air. The electrical properties of snow should be
altered according to its ice content, that is,
according to its density. The parameters
characterizing the nature of snow are its resistive b) In cooling process of snow
volume, dielectric constant, salt content, water Figure 1: Conductivity of water melted
content, volume density, particle diameter, crystal from snow as a function of temperature for
structure, and impurities. Indeed, from January to
two densities of snow
April 2004, chemical analysis of natural snow
collected from various places around the facilities
of the Industrial Chair on Atmospheric Icing of
3. Laboratory investigation setup
Power Network Equipment (CIGELE) have
shown that the conductivity of water melted from Figure 2 shows the schematic diagram of the
snow is owing mainly to NaCl [14]. The experimental setup, which consists of a 350-kV ac
electrical properties of snow also depend on high voltage system, a capacitance divider
geometric factors, applied voltage, and contact (C1=1200PF and C2=8.89µF) for applied voltage
with the electrodes. However, it has been measurements, a shunt resistor (R =10.2 Ω) to
acknowledged that among these, the resistive measure the leakage current flowing through the
volume is the major parameter which affects the test object, a data acquisition system, and a
electrical characteristics of snow. The resistive vertical circulation climate room with sliding roof,
volume of snow is largely influenced by its making possible not only very realistic simulation
volume density and salt content [16]. of different types of atmospheric ice, but also the
Snow conductivity is well known to depend not collection of natural cold precipitation, snow in
only on snow temperature, but also on the density particular. For each test, the test object is placed
of the sample. Some of the results, as a function of in the climate room at a temperature of -12°C.
snow temperature for different densities of natural The AC high voltage can be applied and raised
snow, for both the cooling and heating processes, linearly as the function of time at a rate of about
are shown in Figure 1. The results show that the 5kV/sec using a 240kVA regulator. The applied
higher the density, the higher the conductivity of voltage and the current flowing through the test
the snow sample. object can be registered simultaneously at 2400

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 A new analytic model to simulate the electrical behavior of a snow-covered insulator
20th International Power System Conference

samples per second using the Labview data
acquisition software. Figure 3 shows a snow-
covered polymeric insulator as the test object and
its equivalent electrical circuit.
performing as a pure resistance. The waveform of
current and voltage present a smooth sinusoidal
wave which only gets deformed just as flashover
occurs. This is particularly true for the current
wave, which becomes rectangular due to the
limited voltage (related to leakage current through
snow) at the input of data acquisition system
(figure 4-c). Numerous small luminous arcs were
observed through the snow before breakdown
voltage, and then a conductive ice channel was
generated in the snow, which caused a stable
breakdown voltage across insulator. This
phenomenon was better distinguished if an air gap
was placed between the high voltage electrode
and the snow.

Figure 2: Schematic circuit diagram of the

experimental setup

a) Time interval in seconds

Figure 3: Illustration of studied snow-

covered insulator and its general equivalent
electrical circuit. b) Time interval in milliseconds

4. Results and discussion

Figure 4 shows an example of the time variation
of voltage across snow and current through it as a
function of time, respectively considered for two
interval times in milliseconds and seconds. It can
be seen in Figure (4-a) that as the voltage across
snow increases linearly, the leakage current
following through snow increases sharply. Also
figure (4-b) shows that the voltage and the leakage c) In the instant of voltage breakdown
current are almost in the same phase, their phase
difference being less than 2 degrees for all
Figure 4: Evolution of the voltage and
samples measured. This means that a snow-
covered insulator can effectively act as an element current of snow covered insulator versus time

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 A new analytic model to simulate the electrical behavior of a snow-covered insulator
20th International Power System Conference

Observation and analysis of the results obtained

from all the tests carried out at CIGELE during
the winters of 2004 and 2005 leads to the
conclusion that snow presents a purely resistive
milieu with non-linear voltage and current
characteristics. Figure 5 shows that when the
voltage across the snow increases linearly, the
current flowing through it increases exponentially.
Therefore, as the voltage across snow increases,
its resistance decreases rapidly. In this regard,
Figure 6 shows the resistance of snow as a
function of applied voltage for a snow density of
0.408gr/cm3 and a conductivity of water melted Figure 6: Evolution of the resistance of snow as a
from snow equal to 265 µS / cm . function of applied voltage

The voltage-current characteristics of snow

were greatly affected by its density and
conductivity, which made it difficult to control
and adjust these parameters to desired test values.
The average density of snow, measured over
several years in Quebec, yielded a margin of 100
to 500 g/cm3 [17]. Therefore, the density of snow
in all tests was considered to be within this
margin. Figure 7 shows the voltage-current
characteristics of snow for two values of density,
as well as for two different values of conductivity
of water melted from snow. It can be observed
that the variation in density and conductivity has a
considerable effect on the electrical characteristics
of snow. Nevertheless, it was not possible to a) Sample with two given close conductivity
adjust the density/conductivity as a constant
parameter in tests, but the experimental results
showed that an increase in either in the density of
snow or in the conductivity of water melted from
snow decreases its electric resistance and allows
for a higher current to flow through snow for a
given applied voltage.

b) Sample with two given close density

Figure 7: Voltage as a function of current measured

experimentally for four samples of snow having different
densities and conductivities.

Figure 5: An example of voltage-current 5. Analytic model for v-i characteristics of snow

characteristics of snow covered insulator A mathematical model can be elaborated to
establish a relationship between the voltage across

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 A new analytic model to simulate the electrical behavior of a snow-covered insulator
20th International Power System Conference

snow and the current flowing through it for a Table 1: Average value of the parameters
given dimension of frame used for packing snow affecting coefficient K1
onto the insulator. Indeed, as shown in Figure 7,
current may be expressed as a function of voltage parameters a1 a2 a3 a4
with equation 1.
[mA] [cm [mA] [cm3/gr]
I = K 1 exp( K 2V ) (1) / µS ]
where, V is the voltage in kV, I is the current in value 2.4578 -0.236 27.10 -21.926
mA, and K1 and K2 are the constant coefficients
depending on snow characteristics and frame
dimensions.
Table 2: Average value of the parameters
The amplitude of voltage and current through affecting coefficient K2
snow were time-depended and could be
introduced using the following relations; parameters b1 b2 b3 b4
V = A.t and I = B.e C .t [kV- [cm [kV- [cm3/gr]
1 1
] / µS ] ]
After eliminating parameter t between V and I,
V
C value 0.03972 0.002653 - 0.596
it yielded I = Be A . Comparing this relation with 0.119
equation 1 allowed for determining the constant
coefficients K1 and K2, yielding relations 2 and 3.
C
K1 = B (2) K2 = (3)
A
In order to elaborate a precise model to simulate
the electrical behavior of snow, over hundred tests
were performed. From these results, all voltage-
current characteristics of snow were obtained,
then for each voltage-current characteristic, an
exponential curve was fitted to it in order to yield
coefficients K1 and K2 to realize equation 1.
Figure 8 shows the dependence of these a) Coefficient K1
coefficients on snow density and conductivity of
water melted from snow. It can be assumed that
coefficient K1 is also an exponential function of
snow density and conductivity of snow, but
coefficient K2 is very close to a linear function of
these parameters. Thus, these coefficients can be
expressed as follows:
K 1 = a1 . exp(a 2σ ) ≡ a 3 . exp(a 4 D) (4)
K 2 = b1 + b2σ ≡ b3 + b4 D (5)

The value of constants a i =1− 4 and bi =1− 4 are

shown in Tables 1 and 2.
b) Coefficient K2
o and * : experimental results ____ : analytic
Using coefficients a i =1− 4 and bi =1− 4 , from
model
Tables 1 and 2, coefficient K1 and K2 can be
rearranged and relations 6 and 7 will be finally Figure 8: Evolution of constant coefficients
achieved as functions of snow density and K1 and K2 as functions of snow density and
conductivity of water melted from snow. conductivity of snow.

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 A new analytic model to simulate the electrical behavior of a snow-covered insulator
20th International Power System Conference

K1 = 8.1453 ∗ e − ( 0.118σ +10.96 D ) (6) 6. Conclusions

K 2 = 0.00132σ + 0.2975D − 0.0396
Substituting coefficients K1 and Κ2 from
equations 6 and 7 into equation 1 gives equation
8, which shows the general relation needed to
simulate the voltage-current characteristics of
snow.
( − ( 0.118σ +10.98 D ) + ( 0.0157σ + 3.39 D − 0.4757 ) )
I = 8.159 * e
Where l is the length of insulator in cm,
50µs / cm ≤ σ ≤ 300µs / cm , and
100g / cm3 ≤ D ≤ 450g / cm3 .
Figure 9 shows the comparison of results
obtained from relation 8 and the measured values
presented in Table 3 for snow having a density
and conductivity of water melted from snow
respectively equal to 0.408gr/cm3 and 265 µS / cm .
It should be noted that there is a good correlation
between them.
In order to evaluate the electrical behavior of a
(7)
snow covered insulator, the applied voltage and
leakage current following through it were
examined and monitored under high alternative
voltage at -12°C. From the voltage-current
characteristics of snow, which were measured
from more than one hundred tests, it was found
that the voltage across snow and the leakage
V
current flowing through the snow-covered
l (8) insulator are almost in the same phase. However,
the resistance of snow is not linear, as it decreases
with an increase in the voltage across snow.
An analytic model to simulate the electrical
behavior of a snow-covered insulator was
developed. This model showed that the current
flowing through the snow ‘I’ has an exponential
relation with the applied voltage ‘V’. In this
relation, the effects of snow density and
conductivity of water melted from snow are
considered. The analytical model developed yields
the voltage-current characteristics of snow close
to those obtained experimentally.

Table 3: Peak values of applied voltage

across snow and the current flowing through 7. References
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 A new analytic model to simulate the electrical behavior of a snow-covered insulator
20th International Power System Conference
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Acknowledgments
This work was carried out within the
framework of the NSERC/Hydro-
Quebec/UQAC Industrial chair on
Atmospheric Icing of Power Network
Equipment (CIGELE) as well as the Canada
Research Chair, tier 1, on Engineering of
Power network Atmospheric Icing
(INGIVRE) at Université du Québec à
Chicoutimi. The authors wish to thank all the
sponsors of the project.