Characteristics of single‑phase fire‑contact and tree‑contact faults in medium‑voltage overhead lines

Authors

Meng WANG, The College of Nuclear Technology and Automation Engineering, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059,China
Yi ZENG, The College of Nuclear Technology and Automation Engineering, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059,China
Longshan YANG, The College of Nuclear Technology and Automation Engineering, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059,China
Tianxiang CHEN, The College of Nuclear Technology and Automation Engineering, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059,ChinaFollow
Songhai FAN, Electric Power Research Institute, State Grid Sichuan Electric Power Company, Chengdu 610041,China
Chi WU, Electric Power Research Institute, State Grid Sichuan Electric Power Company, Chengdu 610041,China

Keywords

overhead line; single-phase fire-contact fault; single-phase tree-contact fault; fault characteristic; flame resistance characteristic

Abstract

In recent years, there have been numerous wildfires caused by various factors, seriously affecting the safe operation of overhead distribution lines. In addition to the contact between overhead lines and trees, human use of fire and lightning are also among the causes of wildfire accidents. The 10 kV overhead line is taken as the research object, and an experimental research platform for single-phase fire-contact and tree-contact faults is built. By means of a high-resistance ground fault model and a comparison in the time and frequency domains, the characteristics of the two faults are analyzed, and the change rules of leakage current flowing through the flame and flame resistance during the flame rise phase of single-phase fire-contact faults are investigated. The results show that single-phase tree-contact faults exhibit smoother amplitude variations during zero-sequence voltage rise compared to single-phase fire-contact faults. Single-phase fire-contact faults display a more pronounced low-frequency component in the zero-sequence voltage compared to single-phase tree-contact faults. During the flame rise phase of single-phase fire-contact faults, the leakage current flowing through the flame exponentially increases with time. The line-to-ground capacitive current has almost no effect on the amplitude of the leakage current flowing through the flame before an arc fault occurs.

DOI

10.19781/j.issn.1673-9140.2025.03.009

First Page

77

Last Page

84

Recommended Citation

WANG, Meng; ZENG, Yi; YANG, Longshan; CHEN, Tianxiang; FAN, Songhai; and WU, Chi (2025) "Characteristics of single‑phase fire‑contact and tree‑contact faults in medium‑voltage overhead lines," Journal of Electric Power Science and Technology: Vol. 40: Iss. 3, Article 9.
DOI: 10.19781/j.issn.1673-9140.2025.03.009
Available at: https://jepst.researchcommons.org/journal/vol40/iss3/9