A Novel Application of Artificial intelligence technology for Outdoor High-Voltage Composite Insulators

Abstract This paper reports on a new approach for optimal design of corona rings on composite insulator. Finite element method combined with the experimental design methodology and Bat optimization method were used in order to minimize the maximum E-field along the insulator length, with the objective of increasing its long-term performance. Corona ring height (H), radius (R) and tube diameter (Dr) are the most important parameters in the design corona rings. They have been evaluated using different techniques and their optimization was achieved by minimizing the objective function using Bat algorithm which is one of the most recently developed nature-inspired optimization approaches. Simulation studies cover potential and electrical field distributions using COMSOL 4.3, which uses a numerical analysis technique based on Finite Element Method (FEM) were done. Reported results show that the optimized corona ring decreases significantly the electric field near its end fittings. That is, potential distribution will be more uniform with the presence of the optimized corona ring. By installing corona ring, the electric field improves about 58.6% compared with the threshold value. The results show that optimization using Bat algorithm as new methodology is efficient for designing corona rings on transmission line composite insulators and it presents more accurate result in finding the best solutions for corona discharges problems.