Abstract:In recent years, the frequently happening of mountain fire has brought a great threat to the safe and stable operation of power grid. Mountain fire will cause the insulation strength of overhead transmission line gap to decrease significantly, resulting in line tripping, line shutdown and other serious accidents. So a "rod-rod" electrode air gap discharge model is designed, the air gap insulation breakdown test of the "rod-rod" model is carried out, and the influence of flame, temperature and smoke on gap insulation is studied. The results show that the flame height and temperature have a great influence on the gap breakdown characteristics, and the temperature is the decisive factor affecting the gap breakdown characteristics. The research results can provide a reference for the prevention of mountain fire tripping accidents in transmission lines.