Abstract
To understand the effects of forest fires on polymer insulators for transmission lines, the forest fire simulation tests were performed with polymer and porcelain insulators at Gochang testing center. These tests consisted of energizing 90 kV at line-to-ground voltage of 154 kV lines and open flame rising up to $600-630^{\circ}C$ as being measured at insulator surface. Mechanical and electrical characteristics such as specific mechanical load, leakage current, low frequency dry flashover voltage and impulse flashover voltage were analyzed for the polymer insulators before, during and after simulation tests compared with porcelain insulators. At the end of fire simulation tests, there was no detrimental deterioration of any insulators. All insulators passed the criteria of KEPCO specification. This study showed that forest fire simulation had no impact on polymer insulators.
