Artificial pollution layer characterization on conventional and textured silicone-rubber insulators

Clean fog testing of artificially polluted insulators is an important tool in the design process of high voltage outdoor insulators. The new voltage ramp test in the clean fog chamber, which was recently proposed by the authors, allows differentiation of insulation materials and the assessment of insulators with and without textured surfaces, using the mean flashover voltage test results of 4 sequential ramps. The surface layer conductance is one of the key parameters that influences significantly the flashover level for a selected design and insulating material. In this work, salt deposit density (SDD) and the Non-Soluble Deposit density (NSDD), leakage conductance and the surface conductance were studied on 11kV silicone rubber insulators adopting conventional plain and textured…