Experimental study of porcelain and toughened glass suspension insulators under desert contamination

Abstract

In this paper, the performance of porcelain and toughened glass suspension insulators artificially polluted with desert contamination is investigated experimentally. The withstand flashover voltage (FOV), and equivalent salt deposit density (ESDD) of desert contaminated insulators have been studied and reported. Artificial pollution testing was carried out, and desert contaminations were prepared in advance for four solutions (NaCl, CaSO4, KCl, and CaO) of different concentration levels to investigate the influence of desert contamination on the insulators of transmission lines. The flashover analyses are completed on 11 kV insulators with artificial pollution coatings. The contaminations materials are (a) Desert Salt Pollution-Dry pollution (b) Natural Fog Condition. Results have proven that flashover voltage decreased with the increase in the dry dessert pollution level at constant pressure and temperature condition. However, the study has also revealed that in the case of natural fog conditions, the flashover voltage of porcelain and toughened glass disc insulator became much lower than the dry test. From the results, it can be detected that engineers can predict and plan for the maintenance schedule of the poor performance of the insulators under different effluence environmental conditions. The study tested the effect of AC voltage flashover on the suspension insulators. However, the DC voltage is suggested to be used and results to be compared with the current study.