Power lines are often exposed to surges caused by direct and indirect lightning. The waveforms of these overvoltages may differ significantly from the standard lightning impulse used in tests to verify the adequacy of equipment insulation designs against atmospheric overvoltages (1.2 / 50 µs). Different models have been proposed to estimate the performance of the insulation against non-normalized impulses, with the disruptive effect model being one of the most used. This work aims at evaluating the behavior of medium voltage insulators when subjected to bidirectionally oscillating voltages. Simulations run using the Extended Rusck Model (ERM) and measurement results show that the occurrence of bipolar oscillating overvoltages are not rare on power distribution lines, as lightning strokes can induce, under certain conditions, voltages with such characteristics. Modifications performed in the circuit of a conventional high voltage pulse generator allowed the generation of bipolar voltages of three distinct periods: 2.2 µs, 4.1 µs and 6.0 µs. This work investigates the behavior of a typical 15 kV pin-type porcelain insulator subjected to bipolar impulses representative of lightning-induced voltages. It is shown that a modification on the method proposed by Savadamuthu et al. to estimate the insulation strength of small (a few mm) insulation systems subjected to bipolar oscillating voltages leads to promising results in terms of predicting the occurrence of flashovers on the 15 kV insulator.

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