Influence of pin corrosion on mechanical characteristic of UHVDC disc suspension insulators and solutions

Hardware corrosion has occurred upon lots of suspension-type porcelain and glass insulators of ±800 kV Chusui and Xiangshang UHVDC transmission lines in China since October 2011. The cause of pin corrosion and its influence on the mechanical property of insulators are researched in this paper. The mechanical load that insulator bears under the circumstance of conductor icing and galloping is calculated by means of ANSYS software. Also, the failure forms of insulators under large mechanical load condition are analyzed. On the basis of this, the method that installing organic material sleeve onto the zinc sleeve to vary its corrosion area is proposed. The problem of mechanical strength decreasing of the insulators caused by expansion of corroded by-products is solved. Insulator samples with organic material sleeves of three structures including zinc sleeve half package type, flush type, and whole package type are made, and pin electrolytic corrosion simulation tests are carried out upon the three kinds of samples respectively by means of the spray water method. It turns out that half package type organic material sleeve alters the corrosion part of zinc sleeve effectively and the pins of insulators with two other kinds of organic material sleeves were corroded seriously. The electric field intensity of insulators is calculated by means of ANSOFT software. Calculation results indicate that the semi-conductive rubber sleeve provides the insulator with better electric field intensity characteristic.