Comparison of different procedures to predict the volt-time curves of 15Â kV insulators

This paper presents the results of the application of a novel method to estimate the parameters of the Disruptive Effect Model for the prediction of the volt-time curves of 15 kV insulators. Besides the standard lightning impulse voltage waveshape, four non-standard impulse waveshapes (namely 1.2/4 μs, 1.2/10 μs, 3/10 μs, and 7.5/30 μs), of both polarities, were adopted in the tests. The measured volt-time characteristics of a 15 kV class pin-type insulator were compared with those predicted by three different procedures related to the Disruptive Effect Model: Darveniza and Vlastos, Hileman, and the one recently proposed by the authors. The results show that for some impulse waveshapes and polarities, the methods by Darveniza and Vlastos and by Hileman do not predict insulator breakdown for the lower voltage levels. On the other hand, a relative good agreement is found between theoretical and experimental results for the calculations performed using the method proposed by the authors.