Simulation Study on Identifying Internal Defects Inside Basin-type Insulators Using Infrared Thermography

As a novel nondestructive testing technique, infrared thermal wave has been introduced to detect the defects in the electrical insulation materials. In this study, a three-dimensional basin-type insulator model is built using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software to simulate the thermal propagation process in a basin-type insulator with defects. The effects of external heat excitation, boundary conditions and the heat conduction on the temperature distribution of the basintype insulator surface were studied. The results showed that the inhomogeneity of the surface temperature distribution was decided by the defect depth and the defect size. Overall, this study presents the surface temperature evolution of the basintype insulator model after applying various external heat excitation.