During the long operational time, porcelain insulators are subjected to a synergistic effect of the electrical, thermal, mechanical stresses, and environmental factors, which causes insulation degradation and lead to low and zero resistance insulators. Compared to traditional methods, infrared imaging has been widely used in the detection of deteriorated insulators and surface contamination because of its advantages of non-stop operation, non-contact and anti-electromagnetic interference. However, there is limited research on the impact of contamination on the heating characteristics of degraded insulators. Moreover, there is a lack of research on the effects of different types of contamination (category A and category B) on the heating characteristics of the insulators and the infrared detection of degraded insulators. In response to the above issues, the effects of contamination level, deterioration resistance and the location of deteriorated unit on infrared detection of the insulators were investigated through field tests and simulation analysis, obtaining the heating patterns of deteriorated insulators under different pollution conditions.

Firstly, the relationship between temperature rise, deterioration and surface contamination was explored through a heating model of porcelain insulator. Secondly, a test platform was built to simulate the operating conditions of 110 kV insulators, and the infrared imaging patterns of insulator strings were analyzed by changing the level of contamination resistance of deteriorated insulator, and the position of degraded insulators in the string. Finally, a thermal-electric coupling model of the insulator was established using finite element method to analyze and calculate the temperature distribution of insulator strings under the combined effects of dielectric loss, conduction current and heat conduction. This model is then used to validate the experimental results.

The results show that the temperature rise of the insulator in the string initially increases and then decreases with the decrease in its resistance. The maximum temperature rise and temperature growth rate of degraded piece with the same resistance value located at the high-voltage end are higher than those of degraded piece located at the medium-voltage end and the ground end, with temperature change rates of 0.093, 0.04 and 0.06, respectively. The overall temperature of steel cap increases with the increase in category A contamination. When the surface wet contamination is relatively light, the temperature variation rate range of each piece in the string is 0.014~0.107, while under severe wet contamination, it ranges from 0.087 to 0.12. The conductivity of fog water (category B contamination) has a significant impact on the temperature rise of the insulator, which increases with the increment of fog water conductivity. Taking the temperature rise under no salt fog condition as the benchmark, the overall average temperature change rates under fog water conductivities of 0.6, 2.2 and 4.1 S/m are 54.9%, 101.2% and 153.9%, respectively.

The following conclusions can be drawn from the test results and simulation analysis: (1) The impact of dry contamination on the heating of deteriorated insulator is negligible. Under conditions of fixed category B contamination, the effect of category A wet contamination on heating is related to the position of deteriorated piece in the string. Furthermore, as the degree of wet contamination increases, the temperature of each piece tends to be consistent. (2) Fog water conductivity (category B contamination) has an additional effect on salt deposit density, which further affects the temperature rise of the insulator by increasing the number of conductive ions. There is a saturation phenomenon in insulator temperature rise in salt fog environments. (3) The excessive humidity can cause disordered temperature changes on the insulator surface, therefore, humidity greater than 90% is not considered during the detection. The leeward side, with small amount of contamination, is selected as the infrared observation position to more clearly diagnose deteriorated insulator in the string.