2011 Electrical Insulation Conference, Annapolis, Maryland, 5 to 8 June 2011

Electric Field Computation of Water Droplets on a

Model Insulator
1 1 2 1

Bhargavi Sarang , Prathap Basappa , Vishnu Lakdawala and Gayathri Shivaraj

1
Insulation Evaluation and Design Laboratory, Norfolk State University, 555 Park Avenue, Norfolk, Virginia 23504, USA
2
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia 25329, USA

connected perpendicular to the insulator. The dimensions of

Abstract- The effect of droplets on the surface of the overhead the insulator are 10 cm x 10 cm with a thickness of 0.5 cm.
insulators (porcelain and silicone rubber) and their contributions The dimensions of the electrodes are the same as that of the
to electric field distribution and hence possibility of failure is insulator. The radius of the water droplet is taken as 2mm.
investigated. Initially the variation of electric field distribution
The height of the water droplet is not a constant value as it
around a typical water droplet in the sheath and shed regions as
a function of contact angle is investigated. The effect on field varies with the contact angle. The values of the dielectric
distribution in presence of multiple droplets is explored by constant and conductivity of the water droplet are considered
varying the number, the relative positioning and contact angle. to be 80 and 2.0e-4 mho/meter respectively.
The Fig. 1(b) is the shed configuration with a single water
I. INTRODUCTION droplet on the center of the insulator surface with two
electrodes parallel to the insulator. The dimensions of the
One of the prime factors leading to faults on transmission insulator, electrodes and the water droplet are similar to that
lines is flashover of polluted outdoor insulation. There are of the sheath configuration. As mentioned earlier the
various types of contaminants that settle on the insulators and simulations were performed on both the SIR insulator and the
in the presence of light rain, freezing rain, fog or dew the porcelain insulator with εr = 6, γ = 1.0e-10 mho/meter and εr =
contaminants dissolve to form a conductive layer on the 4.3 and γ = 1.0e-4 mho/meter respectively.
insulator surface initiating leakage current and partial arcs (dry
band arcing) which can be ultimately lead to flashover.
Insulators for voltages over 500kV exhibit non-homogenous
stress distribution. Under these conditions electrical stresses at
water droplets/films can easily exceed the threshold value
required for breakdown even with very little or no
contamination. This in turn can lead to corona that destroys
the material of insulators. Hence, studying the electrical field
distribution on wet insulators can facilitate adoption of
suitable design parameters. Initial simulations are performed
on a single water droplet by varying the contact angles from
100 to 1700 so that the influence of contact angle in enhancing
the ageing process of an insulator is understood [1]. Two
models namely Sheath configuration and Shed configuration
Figure 1. Models used in Simulation. (a) Sheath Configuration (b) Shed
are modeled using 3-dimensional software called COULOMB. Configuration
Another important factor that is investigated is the difference
in electric field intensification between materials having B. Contact Angle
intrinsic hydrophobic properties such as Silicon Rubber (SIR) Hydrophobicity is an important property which aids in
and the materials that lack hydrophobic properties such as increasing the longevity of the insulator by allowing the water
porcelain. In the second set of simulations, multiple water to form like a bead instead of a sheet or a film on the insulator
droplets in the sheath configuration of the model insulator are surface. Bead like water droplets prevent the formation of
analyzed by changing their number and relative position [2-4]. solid conducting areas which turn into flashover prone
regions and also help in removing loose contamination from
II. MODEL SETUP
the insulator surface which in turn reduces the leakage
A. Model Insulator currents. The simulations with respect to the change in the
The Fig. 1(a) is the sheath configuration with a single water contact angle are initially performed using the material SIR.
droplet on the surface of the insulator with two electrodes The results and the analysis are provided in detail in the
sections below.

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 the length of the water droplet attached to the surface of the
C. Effect of contact angle in the sheath region insulator is minimal. “At this juncture, the triple point
The sheath region of an insulator attributing to the narrow between water drop, insulator and air is engulfed by the water
diameter (width is 5 to 7 times smaller than the shed region) which is an equipotential surface” and thus the level of Emax is
experiences more electrical stress when compared to the shed relatively low. This is experienced by the insulators making
region. The water droplets across the sheath region near the contact angles greater than 900 with the insulator surface
HV end act as probable locations for initiation of ionization which is depicted in Fig. 2. Due to natural weathering the
due to the high stress concentration. The direction of the hydrophobic property of the insulator gradually leaches out
applied voltage is tangential to the sheath region and therefore and the wet ability of the insulator increases. This process
tangential stresses play a pivotal role in the performance of signifies a reduction in the contact angle and thus the length of
the insulator. Depending on the level of hydrophobicity the contact is at its maximum. In practice when the contact angle
shape of the water droplet varies and consequently affects the is low it forms a water film on the sheath surface and causes
wet ability of the insulator surface. Electric field distribution the leakage surface to become wet. This effectively reduces
varies with respect to the shape of the water droplet. the dry region of the insulator length and causes an increase in
Therefore to investigate this aspect simulations are conducted the electric field intensification. This explains the high stress
on a single water droplet with a variation in the contact angle. values in the range of 300 to 900 of contact angle. Therefore
A single water droplet is placed on the SIR insulator surface we can conclude that the magnitude of the E-field necessary
of the sheath configuration model and its contact angle is to result in the onset of water drop corona is a function of
varied from 100 to 1700 to analyze the variation in Emax both drop size and surface hydrophobicity. The Emax values
(Maximum value of E-Field) around the water droplet. are low for contact angles below 300 due to the resistive
Relationship between the magnitude of the ratio of Emax/E0 and grading effect produced by the thin water film. Hence it is
the contact angles ranging from 100 to 1700 on the sheath most desirable to have a contact angle above 900 below which
configuration of a SIR insulator is illustrated in the Fig. 2 the insulator is more vulnerable to wet flashover. .
below. The maximum E-Field value with respect to the
contact angle is represented by Emax and the average stress is C. Effect of contact angle in the shed region
denoted by E0. The shed region protects the sheath surface by dispersing
6
water away like an umbrella. As mentioned above the stresses
on the shed region in practice are several orders of magnitude
5.5 lesser than in the sheath region due to the large diameter.
5
Therefore the obtained values do not provide a comparison
between the stress magnitudes of the shed and the sheath.
4.5 Nevertheless these values enable us to examine Emax
E m a x /E 0

variations with respect to different contact angles. The

4
breakdown process can be originated on the shed region
3.5 under the absence of water droplets on the sheath region.
Rain, fog, dew, snow etc causes the water droplets to get
3
accumulated on the shed region. The Fig. 3 below provides a
2.5 graphical representation of variation of the ratio of Emax/E0
with respect to the contact angles ranging from 100 to 1700 on
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Contact Angles
Figure 2. Variation of normalized maximum electric field values with respect the shed configuration of a SIR insulator. A drastic decrease
to the contact angle for Sheath (SIR) region in the values of Emax is noticed between the contact angles 100
and 400 and above the contact angle of 500 variations are at its
The Fig. 2 shows that Emax is a function of contact angle. The minimum. This indicates that at extremely low levels of
Emax values are observed to be low initially between contact hydrophobicity, high electric field intensities occur at the
angles of 100 to 300. The values of Emax are considerably high triple point and may initiate the ionization process. However
between the contact angles ranging from 300 to 900. Emax at higher levels of hydrophobicity, it is observed that the
reached its peak at 400 of contact angle indicating that this maximum electric field occurs at the tip of the bubble which
condition is more prone to flashover when compared to the is represented by the contact angles ranging from 500 to 1700
other cases. The contact angles between 900 and 1200 showed here. This behavior is due to the proportional increase in the
a drastic decrease in the amount of stress values and are curvature of the water bubble with an increase in the angle of
nearly flattened out above 1200 of contact angle. The contact. Since the maximum stress occurs at the tip of the
explanation for the above mentioned pattern of stress values bubble away from the insulating surface the stress values are
is given as follows. relatively small.

For water droplets of the same volume, the length of contact

with the insulator is longer for those drops of small contact
angles and shorter for those of large contact angles. Thus
when an insulator surface has a high degree of hydrophobicity

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 25

20

15
E m a x /E 0

10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
Contact Angles
Figure 3. Variation of normalized maximum electric field values with respect to
the contact angle for Shed (SIR) region

D. Comparison of Electric Field Intensities between the Figure 5. Variation of normalized maximum electric field values with respect
to the contact angle for shed configuration. Square points are for porcelain and
insulating materials, SIR and Porcelain, on the Sheath and the Asterisk points are for Silicone Rubber. E0 is the average E-Field and Emax is
Shed regions the maximum E-Field
Two types of insulating materials namely ceramic and non
ceramic insulators are currently being used. Polymeric The Figs. 4 and 5 shows that the stress values in porcelain are
insulators exhibit more advantages when compared with higher than those in SIR. The reasons are given as follows.
ceramic insulators. The materials used are porcelain and SIR • The relative dielectric constant of porcelain is larger
respectively. The E-Field intensification caused by both of than that of SIR.
these materials on the sheath and the shed regions is compared • Porcelain exhibits low levels of hydrophobicity as
in the section below. The Figs. 4 and 5 below represent the compared to SIR.
variation of the normalized maximum electric field values • Evaporation of water takes more time in porcelain
with respect to the contact angles in the range 100 to 1700 for due to the high surface energy and thus results in
the sheath and the shed configurations respectively. Square high stress values.
points are for porcelain whereas the asterisks represent SIR. Higher stress values indicate higher susceptibility to flashover
and thus aids in damaging the insulator surface at a faster rate.
The above facts and results demonstrate that SIR performs
better when compared to Porcelain. Our experimental results
agree with findings of other workers [2]

III. Multiple Droplet Configurations

The previous section included simulations on a single water

droplet and it was observed that the contact angle plays an
important role in increasing the electric field intensity.
Furthermore we noticed that the angles 1700 and 400 exhibited
the minimum and the maximum amount of E-Field
respectively. Thus two sets of simulations are conducted, one
at a contact angle of 400 which represents a degraded insulator
and in the other a contact angle of 1700 representing an
insulator with high degree of hydrophobicity[3]. The sheath
region being narrower in dimension experiences higher
amount of stress when compared to the shed region as seen in
the previous chapter. Due to the practical importance of the
Figure 4. Variation of normalized maximum electric field values with respect
to the contact angle for sheath configuration. Square points are for porcelain sheath configuration over the shed configuration the
and Asterik points are for Silicone Rubber. E0 is the average E-Field and Emax simulations are performed only on the sheath model explained
is the maximum E-Field earlier. Seven different patterns were considered to perform
the simulations where the number of droplets, distance
between the water droplets and their relative positions were
varied which are shown in the Fig. 6 below.

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 Figure 7. Variation of Emax/Eavg with number of water droplets for 400 contact
angle. The triangular symbol indicates the results of models 2B and 3B

TABLE 1. Emax FOR DIFFERENT CONFIGURATIONS WITH RESPECT

TO CONTACT ANGLE OF 40

Model 1 2A 2B 3A 3B 4 5

Emax 4.824 3.94 2.974 4.305 5.208 4.842 5.578

In model 3A the water droplets are arranged with their centers

at the vertices of a triangle. In 3B the three water droplets are
placed in a row with a distance of 33.33 mm between their
centers along the field direction. Note that the distance
Figure 6. Top views showing the droplet arrangement. Starting from the top between the electrode and the water droplet also has been
left, the arrangements are named as (1) with a single droplet, arrangement decreased here when compared to the other cases. The
(2A) with two droplets, (2B) with two droplets with larger spacing between
them, (3A) with 3 droplets in the form of a triangle, (3B) 3 droplets in a line, distance between the first water droplet and the electrode is
(4) with 5 droplets and (5) with 9 droplets. All dimensions given are in mm 16.66 mm and is the same with the last water droplet. It can be
and they symbolize the distances of the droplets from the respective electrodes seen from Table 1 there is a drastic increase in Emax when the
and the distances between them. droplets are placed with their centers oriented along the field
in contrast to placing them in a triangular fashion. This is
A. Effect of Multiple Water Droplets on the E-Field because the water droplets attain the potentials of the
The enhancement of local electric field in the case of multiple equipotentials passing through them and act as conducting
water droplets is much more serious than with a single water particles aligned along the field direction resulting in
droplet. The Fig. 7 below shows the effect of multiple water enhanced electric stresses locally. The presence of the water
droplets placed at different locations on E-Field with respect particles effectively reduces the dry region and the voltage
to the contact angle of 400. The Table 1 displays the values of between the water particles is distributed between the dry
Emax for the seven different configurations at contact angle regions between them. Another reason for the significant
400. To investigate the effect of distance between two droplets increase in the E-Filed is due to the decrease in the distance
on Emax, we have considered models 2A and 2B with distances between the electrodes and the water droplets. The E-field
between their centers being respectively 33.33 mm and 46.66 value depends on the distance between the water droplet and
mm. It has been observed that the value of Emax is higher in the the electrode i.e. the shorter the distance between the droplet
case of 2A as compared to 2B. When the distance between and the nearest electrode the higher the E-Field intensification.
two droplets is relatively large the effect on the Emax is lower The numerical results indicate that the components of the E-
since the droplets act as equipotential surfaces and hence the Field along the field direction are significantly larger than the
E-Field is inversely proportional to the distance between them. other two directions. From Table1 above we observe that Emax
In models 3A and 3B three water droplets are considered. (1) > Emax (3A). This is due to the fact that single water droplet
causes more non-uniformity than multiple droplets. Emax (3A)
> Emax (2A) since the presence of third water droplet affects
the stresses at the triple points of both water particles. The
effect of more number of water droplets on E-Field is

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investigated through models 4 and 5. From the Table 1 we can discussed in the previous chapter this behavior is due to the
infer that the position of the droplets and the distances fact that acute and obtuse contact angles imply very low and
between them along the field of direction is crucial in very high degrees of hydrophobicities respectively.
determining the magnitude and location of Emax. Even though
there are five water droplets in model 4 compared to three in E. Conclusions
the model 3B the E-Field intensity is not as high as in the case The simulations performed on a single water droplet on the
of 3B. This is because the relative distance between water shed and the sheath configurations with a variation in the
particles is relatively higher in 4 than in 3B. It can be seen that contact angle and insulating material indicated the following.
the E-Field is higher in the case of model 5 than the model 4. • The stress values around the water droplet on the
From the Table 1 above we observe that the Emax (5) > Emax sheath region are significantly high when compared
(3B). The increase in the E-Field value in model 5 is attributed with the shed region.
to the presence of more water droplets when compared to the • The maximum stress value always occurs at the triple
model 3 due to which there is a reduction in the effective point (interface between air, water and the insulating
flashover distance between both electrodes. The presence of surface) of the water droplet on the sheath region.
additional water droplets makes stress distribution more • For water droplets on the shed configuration, at low
uniform although the electric field strength in the vicinity of levels of hydrophobicity the maximum stress occurs
each water droplet is enhanced. The numerical values of at the triple point and for high levels of
electrical stresses depend on the method of computation, hydrophobicity the maximum stress value shifts to
degree of discretization, convergence criteria etc. These values the tip of the water droplet.
are to be used qualitatively to compare the relative effect due • SIR has better electrical performance characteristics
to differences in configurations. when compared with porcelain.

B. Effect of contact angle on the E-Field For multiple droplets the field patterns varied with respect
Simulations for all configurations shown in Fig. 6 are carried to change in the number, relative position and contact
out for the contact angle 1700. The Fig. 8 below indicates the angle of droplets resulting in following conclusions
effect of multiple water droplets placed at different locations • E-Field intensity depends on the distance between the
on Emax/Eavg with respect to the contact angle of 1700. The water droplets and the electrodes and also on the
triangle shape indicates the E-Field for models 2B and 3B. relative distance between two water droplets.
• Water droplets present in a row reduces the dry
region between water droplets and results in high
stress values.
• The location of the water droplet is more significant
when compared with the number of water droplets.
• Hydrophobicity plays an important role in reducing
the E-Field intensity.

REFERENCES
Figure 8. Variation of Emax/Eavg with number of water droplets for 1700 contact [1] Prathap Basappa, Vishnu Lakdawala, Bhargavi Sarang and Ashutosh
angle. The triangular symbol indicates the results of models 2B and 3B Mishra, “Simulation of Electric Field Distribution around water droplets
The Table 2 below displays the values of Emax for the seven on outdoor insulator surfaces”, Conference Record of IEEE International
Symposium on Electrical Insulation, pp.50-54, June 8-11, Vancouver ,
different configurations at contact angle 1700. BC, Canada, 2008
[2] Michael G. Danikas, "Water Droplets on Polymeric Surfaces Under the
TABLE 2. Emax FOR DIFFERENT CONFIGURATIONS WITH RESPECT influence of Uniform Electric Fields: An Investigation with Horizontal
TO CONTACT ANGLE OF 1700 and Inclined Test Electrode Arrangements," Conference Record of IEEE
International Symposium on Electrical Insulation, pp. 672-675, June 8-
Model 1 2A 2B 3A 3B 4 5 11, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 2008,
[3] Bhargavi Sarang, Prathap Basappa and Vishnu Lakdawala, “Electric
field calculations of wet insulating surfaces” Proceedings of the IEEE
Emax 2.82 2.259 2.009 2.576 3.021 2.933 3.169 International Conference on Electrical Insulation and Dielectric
Phenomena, 2008, Pages:228-231.
[4] Sarang, B., Basappa P., Lakdawala, V. “Effect of water droplets and
water films on the electrical performance of outdoor insulators”,
Comparison of Figs. 7 and 8 and Tables 1 and 2 show that Conference Record of IEEE International Symposium on Electrical
except for single water droplet case the ratio of Emax/Eavg Insulation, pp.1-6, San Diego, CA, June 6-9, 2010,
varies inversely as the number of water droplets increases. The
field intensification is much higher for 400 contact angle when CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
compared to the contact angle of 1700 as expected. As Prathap Basappa, Department of Electronics Engineering, Norfolk State University,
Norfolk, VA 23504, USA, E-mail: [email protected]

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