Research on power frequency arc movement process of insulator in ring shape parallel gap lightning protection device

Parallel gap lightning protection device (PGLPD) could effectively divert the power frequency following current when being added parallel with the insulator sting. Considering that structure of ring shape PGLPD will greatly affect the performance of diverting arc, which will inherently determine protective effects for insulator string, it is necessary to understand the arc movement characteristics and process on the metallic electrode. Consequently, we design a new type of ring shape PGLPD as test product and conducted the arc-burning experiments with 15.75kA short-circuit current. In this paper, we build up an arc movement simulation model applied to the ring shape PGLPD based on the chain arc model and simulate arc movement process with 15.75kA short-circuit current, then analyze arc movement rules and characteristics under ring shape PGLPD in detail. Both the simulation and experimental results show that the ring shape PGLPD has a well arc-diverting performance and could protect composite insulator effectively.