Flashover Influence of Fog rate on the

Characteristics of Polluted Silicone-Rubber

Insulators
Adnan S Krzma
Department of Electrical and
Computer Engineering,
Faculty of Engineering,
Elmergib University, Libya
Salamaaek@gmail.com
M Albano A Haddad
Advanced High Voltage Advanced High Voltage
Engineering Research Centre, Engineering Research Centre,
School of Engineering, School of Engineering,
Cardiff University, U.K. Cardiff University,U.K.
Albanom@cardiff.ac.uk Haddad@cardiff.ac.uk

Abstractʊ This paper presents an experimental investigation on
flashover performance of silicone rubber (SiR) outdoor
insulators. The AC flashover-voltage (FOV) of selected insulator
designs is measured adopting the clean fog test and a high
voltage ramp test. A conventional insulator design with a plain
surface has been tested and compared with insulators having
a textured surface. The FOV dependency on the pollution
severity level is quantified. The influence of SiR profiles and
wetting rate on the mean FOV are also investigated. For
different ranges of wetting and pollution severity conditions, the
results showed that the textured insulator designs exhibit an
increased flashover performance compared with conventional
non-textured insulators. Textured insulators can offer an
increased FOV performance up to 16% compared with the
average FOV of the conventional insulator. Under lower fog
rate, the FOV level for both insulator types does not gradually
increase with the testing time but is characterised by a U-trend.
For moderate and high fog rates, a stable increase in FOV is
observed. The result gives an indication that the average FOV is
substantially affected by the higher fog rate for both insulator
profiles. Furthermore, a greater improvement was gained on the
mean FOV under textured design.
Index Terms-- artificial pollution, clean fog test, equivalent salt
deposit density, flashover voltage, fog chamber, silicone rubber
insulator.
I. INTRODUCTION
In service, outdoor polymeric insulators are being
subjected to various operating conditions and environments.
The conditions such as electrical and mechanical stresses over
long term, will contribute to the deterioration of the properties
of insulators and reduction of their performance. The
environmental factors such as rain, temperature, humidity and
ultraviolet radiation contribute to the insulator degradation.
Under harsh environmental conditions, where the surface of
the polluted insulator is affected by dew and mist deposition
as well as fog and/or rain, a film of water is formed and the
leakage current flows through the wet pollution layer on the
surface. The leakage current can increase and start to dry the
pollution layer on the insulator surface, and this leads to dry
band formation which can lead to initiation of partial arcs.
These arcs extend along the insulator profile and may
eventually cause a flashover event [1].
The flashover phenomenon is one of the most complex
problems observed in high voltage outdoor insulators [1], [2].
This phenomenon occurs due to several reasons, such as
diverse pollution severity in different environments,
non-uniform pollution distribution along the insulator surface
which increase the difficulties in its modelling given the
complex form of the insulator [3], [4]. Insulator flashover
may lead to costly outages for power system utilities and,
therefore, it is a very important factor for the dimensioning
and the design of high voltage insulators [5], [6]. Since the
performance of SiR insulators has not been fully understood,
the extensive laboratory tests carried out in this paper aimed
to offer a better understanding of the performance of SiR
insulators. A comparative study between the flashover
performance of conventional and textured SiR insulators is
conducted. The effects of several factors (pollution severity,
wetting rate and insulator shape) are investigated.
II. EXPERIMENTAL ARRANGEMENTS
A. Test insulators
Two 4-shed insulator designs were used in this study:
a smooth conventional design with a plain surface (CONV)
and a 6 mm square textured trunk insulators (TT6). The
insulators were manufactured in-house with two- component
silicone rubber (600A/B) by vacuum-casting over a glass-
fibre core with aluminium end fittings crimped on each
terminal. The insulator profiles adopted are shown in Fig. 1,
and their dimensions are summarized in Table I.
(a) Conventional (b) Textured
Fig. 1. Test samples for conventional insulator (a) and textured insulator (b)

TABLE I
DIMENSIONS OF TESTED INSULATORS
Parameter Conventional (mm) Textured (mm)
Creepage distance 375 471
End fitting separation 175 175
Shed diameter 90 90
Shed separation 46 46
Trunk diameter 28 28
Inner core diameter 18 18
Form factor 2.76 2.76
B. Experimental setup
The insulators were tested in the fog chamber of the
Cardiff University high voltage laboratory (Fig. 2) using the
clean fog method. The chamber wall is made of
polypropylene and its dimensions are 2 m x 2 m x 3 m.
An earthed aluminium mesh is attached to the chamber floor.
Visual inspection of the test sample inside the fog chamber is
possible through a transparent door, which has a rectangular
opening at approximately the height of the tested insulator to
allow recording during the test using visual and infrared
cameras. Two pairs of water spray nozzles supply the
chamber with a uniform fog. The nozzles are placed in
opposite corners of the chamber. The fog supply is provided
by a control panel located outside the high voltage test cage.
This panel can be used to adjust the water flow rate and air
pressure, which allows the wetting rate of the polluted
insulator to be controlled. The high voltage is supplied from a
test transformer to the chamber through a vertical aluminium
tube conductor with grading rings at both ends to limit corona
discharges. The test insulator is grounded by connecting the
lower electrode to the earthed floor.
Fig. 2. Test set-up of fog chamber tester (Cardiff University High Voltage
Laboratory).
The test circuit diagram of the fog chamber is shown in
Fig 3. A Hipotronics AC Dielectrics test set provides the test
voltage through a 150 kVA, 50 Hz transformer that can
supply a 2 A load at a maximum output voltage of 75 kV. A
control panel can be used to adjust the voltage supply by
changing the (0-960 V) primary voltage via a Peschel
Variable Transformer. The voltage can be controlled
manually or by using a program to follow a predetermined
voltage pattern. The circuit breaker will interrupt the supply
in the case of a flashover event. The applied RMS voltage
was displayed on a digital control panel, and the voltage
waveform is recorded through an RC divider with a voltage
ratio of 10000:1.
Fig.3. The test circuit diagram of fog chamber.
The current measurement and protection system consists
of a leakage current measurement resistor (selected from
values of 4700 ȍ, 1140 ȍ or 94 ȍ) with shunt branches of
back-to-back high power Zener, Schottky diodes and gas
discharge tube, which together suppress any overvoltage that
might occur and protect the data acquisition card (DAQ). The
data acquisition system monitors and records the voltage and
leakage current waveforms using a purpose-developed
LabVIEW program on a personal computer.
C. Ramp test method
The technique of a high voltage ramp test is carried out as
proposed in previous work [4]. At the beginning of the test,
a minimum r.m.s voltage of 0.87 kV is applied using the Hipotronics
AC system. Subsequently, the voltage is controlled by a program to
follow a pre-set voltage ramp of 4 kV/minute. This rate is sufficient
to cause a flashover event within 5 to 10 minutes. The fog
generation in the chamber room is started simultaneously with the
application of the test voltage and is kept running until the
termination of the test. At the instant of the flashover event, the
transformer protection circuit breaker interrupts the voltage supply.
The test insulator is then left to cool down for 5 minutes, after which
a new ramp test is initiated until the required number of FOVs is
achieved. During the ramp test, the infrared and video cameras were
triggered to investigate any flashover event and discharge activity on
the insulator surfaces.
III. ARTIFICIAL POLLUTION TESTING
A. Pollution suspension of insulators
The pollution suspension of silicone rubber insulators was
prepared according to a modified version of IEC 60507 solid
layer methods [7], [8]. The contaminating suspension
consisted of kaolin (40g), tap water (1l), wetting agent (1g),
and a suitable amount of sodium chloride (NaCl) to achieve
a volume conductivity range from 2.9 to 20.0 S/m. The
pollution slurry with volume conductivities of 4 S/m,
11.2 S/m, and 20 S/m were prepared, and the performance of
the insulators with different pollution levels was evaluated.
The clean insulators were polluted by pouring the
contamination on the insulator surface, ensuring the
application on all parts of the insulator surface. Then, the
insulator was left to dry for at least 24 hours.
B. Leakage conductance evolution
Low voltage tests have been conducted to evaluate the
conductance of the pollution layer which is dependent on the
fog rate [9]. The leakage current of a conventional insulator
was recorded during the application of a low voltage AC
source (200 V) and fog generation simultaneously.
Over the period of the test, Fig.4 shows the variation of the
leakage current flowing in the wet pollution layer
(ESDD 0.21 mg/cm2) for a water flow rate of 3 l/h and 8 l/h.
The maximum conductance value was about 0.7 ȝS for both
flow rates. The graph shows that the leakage current variation
is a function of the water flow rate settings [10]. Higher flow
rates will accelerate the speed of wetting, and the
conductance layer will reach the maximum value faster.
3 l/h
Flow rate
8 l/h
Fig. 4. AC leakage current of a conventional insulator versus applied fog
time; ESDD 0.21 mg/cm2.
IV. CLEAN INSULATOR FOG TEST
The main purpose of this test was to evaluate the
performance of a clean SiR insulator under fog conditions and
compare it with the performance of the same profile under the
solid layer method.
As this was a preliminary test, non-standard procedures
were followed. The applied fog rate was 9 litres/hour at an air
pressure of 35 psi. The voltage of 0.87 kV was applied to the
insulator for 18 minutes. After that, the test voltage was
increased gradually at steps of 4 kV up to 43 kV whereupon
the supply voltage was switched off to avoid flashover. The
insulator has shown a lower leakage current value, and no
discharge activity or actual flashover events were observed
below 40 kV. However, above 40 kV, significant discharge
activities were noticed and revealed by visual records.
V. POLLUTED INSULATOR FLASHOVER TEST RESULTS
A. Comparison of FOV for conventional and textured insulators
For the flashover series tests, the voltage was applied at
a fixed rate of increase (4kV/min) until a FOV event
occurred. For each test series, the polluted insulator was
subjected to a number of sequential ramps consisting of
between 4 and 12 flashovers. Only the early flashover events
were considered for evaluating the flashover performance.
The first four flashovers are very important as they simulate
the service line conditions where a contaminated insulator is
gradually wetted by an early morning fog. The FOV results
reported in Table II were all obtained as the mean value from
the first four flashovers.
For all insulators, the results showed that the textured
insulator designs exhibit an increased flashover performance
compared with conventional non-textured insulators. As can
be seen in Table II, textured insulators can offer an increased
FOV performance up to 16% in the case of the TT6 design
compared with the average FOV of the conventional insulator
under conditions of low pollution (0.21 mg/cm2) and low fog
rate (4 l/h). The same performance of the TT6 design was
also observed under higher polluted (0.64 mg/cm2) conditions
with a lesser improvement of the flashover level reached
to 14 %.
The performance TT6 insulator design under the
conditions of the severe pollution (1.15 mg/cm2) and lower
wetting rate (4 l/h) was significantly decreased compared
with its performance in the cases of high and low pollution
conditions. Nonetheless, it has still improved the flashover
voltage level by 6 % compared with the conventional design.
This indicates the effectiveness of the textured insulator
design for improving the FOV performance even under harsh
ambient conditions.

TABLE II
HIGH VOLTAGE FLASHOVER TESTS RESULTS

Insulator Number of test Total number Mean FOV FOV level improvement
Test conditions profile series of flashovers [kV] compared with CONV

Severe pollution (1.15 mg/cm²) CONV 2 8 25.8 --------

lower fog rate (4 l/h)
TT6 1 4 27.6 6%
High pollution (0.64 mg/cm²) CONV 3 12 26.4 -------
lower fog rate (4 l/h) TT6 3 12 30.6 14 %
High pollution (0.64 mg/cm²) CONV 4 16 31.6 --------
moderate fog rate (7 l/h) TT6 3 12 33.2 5%
High pollution (0.64 mg/cm²) CONV 4 16 32.4 -------
higher fog rate (9 l/h) TT6 4 16 34.0 5%
Lower pollution (0.21 mg/cm²) CONV 2 8 33.7 ------
lower fog rate (4 l/h) TT6 2 4 40.0 16 %
Lower pollution (0.21 mg/cm²) CONV 3 12 40.4 -------
higher fog rate (9 l/h) TT6 1 4 40.8 1%
B. pollution severity level on flashover of SiR insulators
In order to investigate the influence of the pollution
severity level on the FOV, several voltage ramp test series
were conducted on a CONV SiR insulator. The tests used
suspensions consisting of kaolin, Triton X-100 and three
different salinities with volume conductivities of 4, 11.2, and
20 S/m. The higher wetting rate of 9 l/h was selected for the
tests. Each test series consisted of four consecutive
flashovers, as illustrated in Fig.5, for 0.21, 0.64 and 1.15
mg/cm2 ESDD levels.
Fig.5. Ramp voltage test CONV series for fog rate 9 l/h: effect of pollution
severity level on FOV. Red curve ESDD 0.21 mg/cm2, Green curve 0.64
mg/cm2, and Blue curve 1.15 mg/cm2.
It can be seen that the FOV trend for the 0.21 mg/cm2
ESDD level is substantially higher if compared with the
curves obtained by adopting 0.64 and 1.15 mg/cm2 ESDD
levels; all tests were conducted using the same wetting rate,
which was equal to 9l/h. The average flashover voltage for
the case of 0.21 mg/cm2 was approximately 26 % higher than
that obtained for the level of 1.15 mg/cm2. This flashover
voltage was also increased by 20% compared with that
attained under the case of 0.64 mg/cm2. The flashover voltage
was significantly decreased with the increase of the pollution
layer conductance that was associated with the controlled
wetting of the layer. The flashover was found to steadily
recover due to the pollution layer washing.
Unlike the case of lower pollution (0.21 mg/cm2),
a severely polluted layer (1.15 mg/cm2) has an influence on
the FOV, and the lowest values of all test series were
obtained. The average flashover voltage for the 1st flashover
shot was 27.5 kV whereas, for the case of lower pollution
condition, the mean FOV was 34 kV. For this case, it was
more important to select an appropriate fog rate to improve
the FOV performance, especially at the severely polluted
conditions.
C. Flashover voltage (FOV) variation with salt deposit density
(ESDD)
This test was performed on two different SiR insulators
with conventional non-textured design (CONV) and with
textured trunk profile (TT6) at the fog rate of 4 l/h. The test
was carried out using ESDD values of 0.21, 0.64 and
1.15 mg/cm2. As shown in Fig.6, the mean FOV decreases as
the pollution degree increases, and this was observed in all
the ramp tests. The mean flashover curve for the CONV
insulator is consistently lower than that of the TT6. The
average FOV for the TT6 insulator in the case of the lower
pollution level (0.21 mg/cm2) and the fog rate of 4 l/h was
40 kV, a value 16 % higher than 33.7 kV found for the
CONV insulator. For the case of the higher pollution
condition (0.64 mg/cm2), the average flashover voltage for
the TT6 insulator was 30.6 kV, 14 % higher than the CONV
insulator. These results show that the improvement in FOV of
the textured design is greater compared with the conventional
insulator, and this effectively increased the lowest FOV
values.
Flashover voltage (kV)
SDD (mg/cm2)
Fig.6. FOV variation with ESDD value at the fog rate of 4 l/h using CONV
and TT6 insulators.
D. The influence of the wetting rate on the flashover of SiR
insulators
Two SiR insulator designs with a smooth conventional
surface (CONV) and with a textured pattern (TT6) were used
in this study. The insulators were tested under the same
polluted condition with ESDD value of 0.64 mg/cm2 and
different fog rates of 4, 7, and 9 l/h. For each insulator design,
a series of three tests was conducted, and each test had four
flashover ramps. Fig.7 shows the average FOV value
obtained with each ramp event. It can be observed from the
figure that the FOV of the CONV insulator under a fog rate of
9 l/h is 9 % higher than that value obtained under a low fog
rate of 4 l/h. The same trend of this growth is also observed
for the TT6 insulator and a 30 % increase in the flashover
voltage is recorded.
It can be seen that the FOV level in the case of 4 l/h does
not gradually increase with the testing time but is
characterised by a U-trend. In this trend, the second FOV
ramp always had the lowest value over the FOV curve. This
is because the lower fog rate gives sufficient time for wetting
the pollution layer completely. Next, a stable increase in FOV
is observed with subsequent ramps similar to the moderate
and high fog rate effects.
Regarding the wetting rate impact on the FOV level, the
mean FOV of 32.4 kV and 34 kV for CONV and TT6
insulators are greater than those values of 26.4 kV and
30.6 kV obtained under the lower fog rate condition.

Flashover voltage (kV)
Ramp number
Flashover voltage (kV)
Ramp number
Fig.7. Average FOV of 3 test series for CONV and TT6 SiR insulators: effect
of wetting rate on FOV. ESDD 0.64 mg/cm2. Fog rates 4, 7 and 9 l/h.
This result gives an indication that the average FOV is
substantially affected by the higher fog rate for both insulator
profiles. Furthermore, a greater improvement was gained on
the mean FOV under textured design. Therefore, it is essential
to choose a suitable fog rate and an appropriate insulator
shape to improve the FOV performance of SiR Insulators.
VI. CONCLUSION
The flashover performance of SiR Insulators using clean
fog tests based on the modified solid layer method was
investigated. An extensive series of high voltage ramp tests
under different conditions was performed to investigate the
influence of the pollution severity level, wetting rate and
insulator profiles on the flashover performance of SiR
insulators. For the same wetting rate and insulator design,
a severely polluted layer has an influence on the FOV and a
26 % decrease in the FOV level was found by increasing the
pollution severity degree to the 1.15 mg/cm2.
For a similar pollution severity level, the mean FOV was
substantially increased by increasing the fog flow rate for
both insulator designs. An inverse relationship between the
flashover voltage and the layer conductance is confirmed and
demonstrated by the U-trend variation of the flashover. The
flashover voltage was significantly decreased with the
increase of the pollution layer conductance, which was
associated with the controlled wetting of the layer. The
flashover voltage was found to recover progressively due to
the pollution layer washing.
Insulators with textured trunks having 6 mm designs
(TT6) showed an improvement of the flashover performance
which could reach 16 % compared with the conventional
insulator. The same performance of this design (TT6) was
also achieved under higher polluted conditions with
a comparable improvement of the flashover voltage reaching
14 %. The performance of TT6 design compared with a
CONV design under the severe pollution conditions shows
a 6 % improvement.
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