Simulação computacional da poluição biológica em isoladores de vidro.

Abstract

The accumulation of pollutants on surface of insulators allows the formation of a layer of substances that, with mist, rain or dew, produces conductive solutions. The surface dielectric strength, in these cases, is reduced, causing failures in electrical system. In the northern region of Brazil, many cases of biological pollution are characterized as slimes, association of microalgae and fungi. To investigate the effect of this pollution on the insulators, the present work presents a computational model that relates the visual aspect of slime in the insulator (intensity, shape and location) with its leakage current obtained by simulation and correlates efficiency of the simulation with laboratory experiments. Test objects used were glass disk insulators, cleaned and polluted with slime. The contaminated insulators were removed from the Guamá Substation, Pará, Brazil and the tests performed at the High Voltage Laboratory of Federal University of Campina Grande in Paraíba, Brazil. Computational simulations using Finite Element Method and, as well as the laboratory measurements, were performed for different humidity conditions since this variable has a significant influence on slime conductivity. The simulation proved to be efficient and the presented results show that it is possible to estimate leakage current of this type of insulator under different humidity conditions and different levels of pollution.