IEEE Africon 2002
INFRA-RED AND ULTRA-VIOLET IMAGING TECHNIQUES APPLIED TO
THE INSPECTION OF OUTDOOR TRANSMISSION VOLTAGE
INSULATORS
F Bologna, N Mahatho and D A Hoch*
Eskom TSI, Johannesburg
*University of Natal, Durban, South Africa
ABSTRACT
The high voltage transmission network in South Africa
contains a relatively high percentage of non-ceramic
insulators. Techniques for assessing the condition of
these insulators are under investigation. Such
techniques include imaging techniques that take either
an infra-red image o r an ultra-violet image of the
insulator. Such images may indicate some changes to
either the external (visible) components of the insulator
o r to the internal (non-visible) components that may
impact the long-term integrity of the insulator. This
paper discusses the results of an investigation into these
two imaging techniques applied to non-ceramic
insulators.
1. INTRODUCTION
Composite insulators have been implemented on the high
voltage transmission network in South A6ica since the late
1970s. These composite insulators are generally used in
regions where pollution flashovers of glass disc insulators
are suspected as a significant cause of faults on the system.
Re-insulation of some parts of the system were undertaken
in the early 1990s leading to a significant increase in the
percentage of composite insulaton on the system.
A non-ceramic insulator is manufactured fmm a Resin
Bonded Glass Fibre (RBGF) core, which is then encased in
a moulded housing material, typically manufactured 60m a
silicone based material. Such insulators provide improved
electrical performance in polluted environments due, in
part, to the hydrophobicity (water droplet contact
angle>90) of the silicone based housing material. Failures
of such composite insulators are rare but nevertheless
certain failure modes have been observed in the field.
It is important that inspection techniques capable of
detecting faults prior to failure be developed. As new
techniques become available, the capabilities and
sensitivities of such techniques need to be assessed. A
review of available techniques was produced by Cigre in
1996 [I]. The techniques reviewed included both on-line
and off-line techniques. On-line techniques are of most
interest in the work discussed in this paper. The on-line
techniques reviewed by Cigre included visual inspection,
infra-red inspection, audible noise measurements, image
intensification (night-vision technology) and electric field
measurement techniques. The UV imaging technique
focussed on night-vision technology (UV intensification in
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the 300-400nm wavelength range). Newer technology
review includes daylight UV intensifying cameras which
were not evaluated in the Cigre review. The review article
reported mixed success with infia-red imaging in the
3OOOnm-8OOOnm wavelength range and indicated that
certain defects may be detected but other defects were not
detected using this technique.
Elemic field measurement techniques have been
subsequently investigated in considerable detail by de
Nigris et al [2] through the evaluation of a specific electric
field measurement device purpose-built for the task. These
same authors also examined the use of infra-red imaging
for certain types of defects but reported that this technique
was not a good diagnostic technique for the defects
simulated in the laboratory.
Ultra-violet imaging is a technique that has been widely
applied in the study of discharges in laboratories. Research
into discharges seen on composite insulators have indicated
that corona discharges will generally occur in the vicinity
of the live end fitting but that water droplets may also cause
corona along the surface of the composite insulator
[3,43,61.
2.1 INFRA-RED IMAGING
Commercial in6a-red imaging techniques have been used
by utilities for inspections of various components within
the power system. The infta-red cameras available
generally operate within certain defined wavelengths,
depending upon the intended application. The particular
camera used in this investigation has a peak wavelength
detection at 2000-13000 nm. Heating of the insulator is not
caused by corona activity but heating may be present if
there are leakage currents flowing either on the surface of
the insulator or through the core. Heating within the core
may indicate a damaged core whilst leakage current
activity on the surface of the insulator may indicate damage
to the sheds and sheath of the insulator or may be
associated with small partial arcs (dry band arcs) on the
surface.
2.2 ULTRA-VIOLET IMAGING
Corona may be present a n various parts of a nan-ceramic
insulator. Typically such corona would occur in the
vicinity of the live end fitting, particularly if electric field
grading rings (corona rings) are not fitted. Corona may
IEEE Africon 2002 594

also occur on a composite insulator if water droplets

generated by rain or high humidification and associated
condensation are present. This type of corona discharge is
known as water droplet corona. Other corona discharges
may be generated along the length of the RBGF core if the
core is damaged through tracking. The above corona
sources occur in air. Such corona discharges have
iditionally been detected through night vision technology
or night-time observation and still photography. However,
it is possible to detect ultra violet emission from corona
discharges at certain wavelengths below that of the lowest
natural daylight wavelengths (in the region of 280nm to
300 nm) that pass through the atmosphere. New cameras
developed demonstrate the capability of detecting the UV Figure 1 : Figure showing the device under test and the
associated with corona sources in natural daylight by three cameras (infra-red, daylight UV and night-vision
utilizing high gain image intensifiers with high density UV).
blocking filters that filter out UV and other wavelengths
associated with natural daylight. Overlaying the UV image 4.1 UV Imaging
with the output from a normal camera then enables the Typical daylight and night-vision images that were
location of the corona source to be correctly identified. obtained for the damaged insulator A are shown in
Figures 2 and 3 below.
The assessment of the inspection techniques considered
both laboratory simulation of damaged insulators and two
field inspections in which the relative ability of each
technique was assessed [7,8,9].

3. LABORATORY RESULTS

The laboratory testing compared both the infra-red, night-

vision image intensification and the day-time image
intensification techniques.

Two damaged insulators (Insulator A and Insulator B)

were tested in the laboratory. The first insulator was
damaged by creating tracking along the core of the
insulator in the laboratory. This was done by spraying the
exposed core with a salt water solution and over-stressing
a small portion of the RBGF rod, thereby producing small
arcs along the surface. These arcs then generated a
along the exposed rod It be
emphasised that this is an artificial tracking mechanism Figure 2 : Output of daylight corona camera : defective
insulator with artificial track along the core of the
that may not occur in the field. A track of approximately
30 cm in length was created in this way. Insulator B was
insulator. Insulator wet with water containing 14 g/l
NaCI.
a unit that had suffered considerable erosion of the
surface in the field.
. Figure 2 indicates that the defect that lies internal to the
shGath of the composite insulator has the effect of a very
These damaged insulators were then suspended in the
high StreSS concentration at the point of the insulator
High Itage at the University Of Natal The where the defect ends, The electric field at this position
insulator was then subjected to operating AC voltage
of the insulator is sufficient to cause corona discharges in
stresses equivalent to the maximum system voltage (Uma)
the vicinity of this region and these discharges are greatly
and inspected using both infra-red and image enhanced by the presence of water on the surface of the
intensifier cameras (night-vision and daylight). The
insulator,
insulator was tested both dry and wet. The wetting was
carried out with a hand-held spray gun. A solution of salt
and water with a NaCl concentration of 14 8/1 was used
(which corresponds to medium severity pollution). This
would be representative of an insulator in a medium
pollution environment.

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it must be emphasised that air-conditioned laboratory

conditions are ideal for this measurement.

Insulator A was then subjected to wetting and the U,

for the unit applied. Some dry band arcing was observed
on the surface of the unit initially until the pollution layer
had dried out sufficiently and the dry band arcing then
ceased. High temperature rises associated with the dry
band activity were clearly visible using the infra-red
camera. An image taken during the dry band arcing phase
is shown in Figure 5 below.

Figure 3 : Figure of Insulator A (damaged core) showing

output of night vision UV camera. Insulator wet with 14
g/1 water.

Figure 3 is the output of the night-vision UV imager for

the same condition as shown in Figure 2 (although at
higher magnification). The correlation between the two
devices in terms of location and overall spatial extent of
the discharge is good. The night-vision imager does
enable more detail of the corona discharge when close to
the insulator under test (typically 2 meters in the
laboratory). As will be shown in Section 4, such detail is
not possible when the imager is placed some 20metres -
40 metres from the source of the discharge.
Figure 5 : Infra-red image of Insulator A during dry-band
The infra-red camera was also used to scan the insulators arcing activity.
under test in the laboratory to determine whether heating
associated with any leakage current flow along the axial
length of the damaged insulators could be detected.

Figure 6 : Figure of Insulator A approximately 8 minutes

Figure 4 : Infra-red image of insulator with tracked core
after a period of AC stressing of 24 minutes. The
temperature increase in the vicinity of the end fitting
(circled) is less than 4'.
Figure 4 is an infra-red image of the insulator with a 30
cm long artificially generated track along the length of the
core. The ambient temperature is 19.5'C whilst the
hottest spot temperature on the surface measured in the
vicinity of the live end-fitting (circled in the figure) is less
than 23OC. This is a discernible temperature increase but
after arcing on the surface of the insulator has ceased.
Some tmIperaNre rise (>lOC) on the insulator is still
discernible.
Insulator B was then subjected to a similar sequence of
tests. The results obtained for stressing the dry insulator
stressed are shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7 : Infra-red image of Insulator B after IO minutes
of stressing under dry conditions.

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IEEE Africon 2002 596

Figure 9 : Image from daylight corona camera indicating

The insulator was then wetted and the test repeated. the ability of the camera to give a clear indication of the

I ds
showing some heating effect after some heavy wetting and
-30 minutes of stressing at U.,
Figure 10: Image taken at night using the night-vision
Temperature rises were still visible on the surface of the imaging equipment.
insulator after 30 minutes of stressing. This is shown in
Figure 8. A comparison of the two UV imaging cameras indicates
very good correlation between the two images. The large
4. FIELD INSPECTION RESULTS integration time of the daylight camera required coupled
to the distance to the insulator under inspection does
The evaluation of the different imaging techniques in the result in less ability to determine the exact location of the
laboratoly indicated that there was very good correlation discharge but does give a reasonable indication of the
between the night-vision and daytime UV imaging location of the discharge activity. A still image using a
equipment. However, the lighting in the laboratory is of large format digital camera was also taken of the same V-
the flourescent type and therefore not representative string as indicated above. This image is shown in Figure
(particularly in the UV region) of natural daylight. 11 below.
Further, in the laboratory it is possible to be relatively
close to the insulator under test (-2 metres) whilst in the
field the distance from the ground based inspection team
to the insulators on the tower will be of the order of tens
of metres (20m-30m). The impact of these less controlled
variables (intensity and spectral density of sunlight on any
given day and distance to the object under test) needed to
be evaluated and the outputs of the various techniques
compared.

A visit to a 400 kV transmission line in a region of high

humidity was undertaken. An daylight UV image of the
tower top is shown in Figure 9 below.
Figure 11 : Still image of same V-string as Figures 9 and
10 above. Image obtained at night using open shutter
technique.

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The use of a high magnifaction factor (zoom lens) results

in a very clear image enabling precise location and an
indication ofthe extent ofthe discharge activity.

The insulators on this particular V-suspension tower

indicated that there was corona activity. Whilst no
heating of the insulator surface was expected, a thermal
image of the V-string was obtained and is included for
completeness in Figure 12.

Figure 14 : Infra-red scan of strain insulators shown in

Figure . No discernible temperature-rise above ambient.

An additional site visit was carried out and still

Figure 12 : Inh-red image of Tower 24 : included for
completeness.
photographs and observations using a night-vision UV
imager were carried out on some 400 kV units mounted in
a V configuration. Some unusual activity was seen on
one unit where the corona activity occurs approximately
one third of the distance along the insulator and no corona
activity was detected in the vicinity of the live end fitting
of the same unit. This corona activity is shown in Figure
15 below.

The site visit included a scan of a minimum of five

transmission line tower tops (400 kV line). The last tower
inspection was carried out during light rain conditions.
During this inspection, corona sources along the length of
the composite strain assembly were observed some
distance from the live end fitting. These discharges were
captured with the still camera and are shown in Figure 13
below.

Figure 15 Figure of two insulators in a V-configuration

showing an abnormal corona source some distance 6om
the live end fitting.

Figure 13 : Figure of two insulators in a strain assembly
indicating corona activity some distance ftom the live end
fitting.
The source of the corona is assumed to be water droplet
corona as these discharges were observed under rain
conditions. Such discharges were not detected on other
insulators on the same assembly, however.
5. DISCUSSION
Ultra-violet and infra-red imaging are both suitable
techniques for the in-service evaluation of composite
insulators. The results from day-light ultra-violet imaging
cameras correlate well with the results obtained with more
classical night-vision imaging equipment as well as with
still camera photographs taken at night. The experiments
performed in the laboratory indicated that UV imaging may
be more appropriate for the detection of defects that may be
of concern to users of composite insulatorj than inh-red
imaging equipment. Discharges associated with an
insulator damaged in the laboratory through tracking
tended to occur at the point where the track ended and less
activity was then observed at the live-end fitting. Such a

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change in corona activity is expected if the track is partially Technikon in 2000. He is employed by Technology
conducting. Such corona modes have been observed on Services International (a division of Eskom Enterprises)
units during in-service inspections. as a chief consultant on insulators. Current research
interests include faults on transmission lines caused by
CONCLUSIONS bird streamers, lightning and fues, optical fibres in high
Damage to the core of an insulator due to tracking voltage environments and high voltage outdoor insulation.
may be detected using both infra-red and UV optical
inspection tools. Nishal Mahatho completed his ND in Electrical
The sensitivity of each technique is enhanced by the Engineering at ML Sultan Technikon in 1997. Currently
presence of moisture on the surface of the insulator. employed as a Senior Technician at Eskom TSI with
A track along the core may manifest itself by the responsibility for high voltage outdoor insulator research
occurrence of corona half way up the insulator and and with research interests covering this area and
possibly at the dead-end of the insulator with an transmission performance related issues.
absence of corona along the length of the track. This
corona may be detected using both night vision UV Derek Hoch graduated with the BSc(Eng) 6um the
cameras as well as daylight corona cameras. University ofthe Witwatersrand in 1986,obtained his PhD
Infra-red cameras will also detect the presence of a from the same institution in 1994 and is currently lecturing
defect but the sensitivity is quite low even when the at the University of Natal. Current research interests
insulator is wet i.e. temperature rises are quite small include factors that affect power system reliability, aging of
unless arcing occurs on the surface of the insulator. polymeric materials and the performance of optical fibres
for communication purposes in high voltage environments.
REFERENCES
[l] Cigre Working Group 22.03, Review of in-service
testing of composite insulators, Electra Number Presenter:
169,December 1996. The paper is presented by Fabio Bologna
[2] de Nigris, M, Tavana, F, Zagliani,F and Rendina, R,
Diagnostic methods of non-ceramic insulators for Authors Addresses:
HV lines, Cigre Session 2000,Paper 22-207,Paris, Eskom TSI, Cleveland 4041,South Africa,
August 2000. E-mail: Fabio.Boloena@eskom.co.za
E-mail: Nishal.M*atho@eskom.co.za
[3] Philips, AJ, Childs, DJ and Schneider, HM, Water
droplet corona effects on a full scale 500 kV non-
ceramic insulator, IEEE Transactions on Power University Of Natal* Durban, 4001
Delivery, Volume 14 Number 1, January 1999. E-mail: hoch@nu.ac.za
[4] Windmar, D, Water droplet initiated discharges in
air, PhD Thesis, Uppsala University Press, 1994.
[SI Hoch, DA, Bologna, FF and Mahatho, N, Corona
associated with in-service non-ceramic insulators,
Eskom Research Report RES/Rw00/12919.
Johanesburg, 2001.
[6] Nixon, KJ, Reynders, JP and Hill, RJ, Corona and
sustained arcing on conventional and novel non-
ceramic insulator designs, 7 Southern African
Universities Power Engineering Conference,
Stellenbosch, January 1998.
[7] Hoch, DA, Bologna, FF and Mahatho, N,
Development of in-service inspection techniques,
Eskom Research Report RES/Rw01/13306,
Johanesburg,.
[8]Hoch, DA, Bologna, FF and Mahatho, N, In-service
inspection techniques for non-ceramic insulators :
laboratory evaluation, Eskom Research Report
RES/RR/00/10470,Johanesburg, 2001.
191 Hoch, DA, Bologna, FF and Mahatho, N,
ZOOZCorona associated with in-service non-ceramic
insulators, Eskom Research Report
RES/RR/00/12919, Johanesburg, 2001.

Authors:
Fabio Bologna graduated with a NHD(Elec Eng) from the
Technikon Witwatersrand in 1989 and has subsequently
obtained an MTech (Elec Eng) from the Port Elizabeth

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