Statistical Reliability Analysis on Flashover Characteristics of Ceramic Disc Insulator and Polymeric Insulators

Composite or polymeric insulators have gained significant attention in recent years compared to conventional ceramic disc insulators used in power transmission. The aim of this study is to investigate the performance of ceramic disc and polymeric ceramic 11 kV outdoor products under industrial pollution using laboratory-based pollution performance tests. The insulator performance tests are conducted at various contaminants levels of cement to assess its effectiveness. Statistical analysis of the flashover voltage is investigated through survival functions, hazard functions, and withstand voltages at different failure probability levels. This is an indicator of the level of pollution in the insulator. In this study, normal and Weibull distribution-based statistical models are employed to examine the performance of insulators. The experimental results reported that the ceramic disc insulator and polymeric insulator proved to be more reliable and compatible as insulators in both normal and industrial pollution conditions based on statistical survival functions, hazard functions, and voltage withstand predictions. Based on the statistical analysis of both insulator flashover characteristics and withstand characteristics, the experimental results showed that the normal polymeric insulators and the polluted polymeric insulators have an overall functional reliability performance that is much better than ceramic disc insulators.