Towards the prospection of an optimal thermal response of ZnO surge arrester in HV power system

Abstract

In order to understand the thermal and electrical properties of surge arrester under standard climatic conditions, it would be useful to evaluate the heating progression in its different elements. These are constituted of heterogeneous materials, which have physical and electrical nonlinear properties along the surge arrester. Temperature predicting solutions for zinc oxide ceramic blocks provide fundamental elements of the electrothermal material characteristics in view of the lifetime estimation. Electrothermal phenomenon analysis of surge arresters is based on empirically-determined parameter models, using finite element method (FEM) simulated on COMSOL Multiphysics software which is a more precise approach compared to the existing models. In this paper, the behavioural model has been developed to study the surge arresters in both cases: the steady state and overvoltage state (lightning). Previous published works validate the first simulation results. This work is therefore extended to consider other operating states, which illustrate the dependence of the type of surge on the amplitudes and durations of electrothermal phenomena.