2156 M. E. Ibrahim et al.

: Nanofilled Nonlinear Coating Material for Improving Proactive Flashover Performance

Nanofilled Nonlinear Coating Material for Improving

Proactive Flashover Performance of High Voltage Insulators
Mohamed E. Ibrahim, Nehmdoh A. Sabiha and Mohamed A. Izzularab
Faculty of Engineering, Minoufiya University, Shebin El_Kom, 32511, Egypt.

ABSTRACT
Flashover is a common reason of insulator failures especially in contaminated areas like
industrial and coastal regions. In this paper, a nanosized carbon black is used to control
the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of a proposed coating material to improve
proactive flashover performance which is presented by reducing the dry band arcing as
well as the surface current over insulator. Using finite element analysis, the electric field
distribution on polluted insulation samples is investigated to clarify the importance of
nonlinear hydrophobic coated insulator. Experiments on glass slaps coated with the
proposed material at different nanosized carbon black loadings are carried out to
determine I-V characteristics of a proposed coating material. Accordingly, a theoretical
model of I-V characteristics is introduced. Then, modeling of the dry band arcing voltage
is presented and experimentally verified. Finally, surface current is experimentally
measured for proposed coating applied on real field insulators. The results provide
evidence of the improved performance of the coated insulators.
Index Terms - Coating, dry band arcing, flashover, high voltage insulators,
nanotechnology.

1 INTRODUCTION
HIGH voltage insulators represent an essential and
indispensible part of high voltage electric power transmission
systems. Failure of high voltage insulator on transmission
lines can lead to service outages, thereby reducing power
system reliability. Also, it can lead to a great economic loss
especially for some industries. For example, a power outage
for a quarter of a second in paper industry can result in a
considerable downtime and equipment damage of up to 50,000
dollars [1]. In Egypt as example, repeated interruptions in the
HV networks in an industrial area in Sadat city were
frequently occurred during the fog times. The reason was
flashover problems over the surface of insulators covered by
accumulated contaminations. Such contaminations were the
reason of flashover creation over the current transformer (CT)
insulator. Accidently, the CT was distorted and blackout was
happened for the industrial area.
Glass and porcelain insulators are the most common in use
all over the world due to its good mechanical properties, their
resistance to chemicals and improved lifetime. The main
disadvantage of glass and porcelain insulators is the high value
of surface free energy [2], which results in a greater to
adhesion to water. In other words, they are hydrophilic. So,
continuous water films can be formed on their surfaces and
consequently a negative impact on contamination based
flashover performance. Contamination related power outages
Manuscript received on 31 July 2013, in final form 27 November 2013,
accepted 6 April 2014.
caused by dry-band arcing are the major limitations with glass
and porcelain insulators [3]. To improve the flashover
performance of these insulators, silicone rubber coating was
proposed by many researchers [4-14]. The flashover was
observed to be improved with the hydrophobic nature of
silicone rubber, which prevents the formation of continuous
water films over the insulator surface. However, degradation
is the main disadvantage restricting usage of silicone rubber
[7, 10, 11]. Also, silicone rubber is not easy for coating
especially for in-service insulators. Recently, nanofillers have
been used to improve the performance of silicone rubber as a
coating material [12, 13]. Also, conductive additives such as
nanosized carbon black are added to silicone rubber to
improve the ice flashover performance and a good results were
achieved [12, 13].
This paper presents a new hydrophobic coating material for
flashover performance improvement of high voltage ceramic
insulators. Finite element analysis is used to estimate the
electric field distribution of polluted coated insulation samples
at different coating conditions. Then, Experiments on glass
slaps, coated with different percents of nanosized carbon
black, are carried out to control I-V characteristics of the
proposed coating material for further improvement in the
flashover performance. Accordingly, theoretical model of
these characteristics is presented. Also, a model to predict the
occurrence of dry band arcing voltage is introduced with a
good agreement with experimental results. Finally, surface
current measurements are captured on real field insulators and
the obtained results shows an improved performance of the
coated insulators as compared to uncoated ones.

DOI 10.1109/TDEI.2014.004227
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 21, No. 5; October 2014
2 EFFECT OF COATING CONDUCTIVITY
AND HYDROPHOBICITY CLASS ON
ELECTRIC FIELD DISTRIBUTION OF
POLLUTED INSULATOR
There are different mechanisms discussing the flashover
phenomenon. The mechanism of dry band arcing is the most
famous one used in literature [16-21]. According to this
mechanism, flashover occurs due to the dry band arcing which
formed due the flow of leakage current on the insulator
surface during wet atmospheric conditions like light rain or
fog. The flow of leakage current evaporates the moisture on
the surface of the insulator leading to formation of dry areas
called “Dry Bands”. High voltage stress is formed around the
dry bands as the surface resistance of the dry bands is much
higher than the conductive contaminated film. Therefore, the
dry bands break down causing an initial partial arc over the
insulator surface. If the voltage gradient is a head of the arc,
the arc propagates causing flashover. The electric field
distribution over the insulator surface is vital for flashover
occurrence as dry band arcing voltage may reach its critical
value.
Finite element analysis is used for the purpose of electric field
intensity calculation over a surface of coated insulation
samples. Figure 1 shows simulated configurations of an
insulation specimen for hydrophilic and hydrophobic coating
materials. In case of continuous water film as configured in
Figure 1a, Figure 2 shows the electric field distribution over
the coating surface for different coating characteristics. Figure
2a shows that the electric field intensity over the dry band is
higher for lower conductive coating material. Reference to the
average value of electric field intensity reported as 8 kV/cm
streamer threshold [21], the electric field over the dry band for
lower conductive coating material exceeds the threshold so
that, dry band arcing may occur. For the higher conductive
coating material, the electric field intensity over the dry band
doesn’t exceed the streamer threshold so that, the probability
of dry band arcing occurrence is reduced. Influence of the
coating material dielectric constant is illustrated in Figure 2b.
Increasing the dielectric constant of coating material gives
insignificant reduction in the electric field over the dry band.
Therefore, coating material conductivity is the primary factor
to reduce the electric field intensity over the dry band.
Using hydrophobic coating material, water droplets are
formed over the surface of the coating material as depicted in
Figure 1(b). In the simulated system, it is assumed that there
are twenty one 500µl droplets. Figure 3 shows the
corresponding electric field intensity distribution over the
coating material surface. According to Figure 3a, the electric
field intensity at the sharp points exceeds the streamer
threshold in the case of low conductive coating material that
may result in local dry band arcing that accelerates the
flashover phenomena. However, dielectric constant of coating
material has insignificant effect on the electric field
distribution. Therefore, it is desired to achieve a coating
material with nonlinear conductivity to reduce the electric
field intensity in the dry band with no effect of surface leakage
current in clean condition as discussed in the next sections.
2157
3 MODELING OF NONLINEAR NANOFILLED
COATING MATERIAL CHARACTERISTICS
AND DRY BAND ARCING VOLTAGE
This section illustrates accomplished laboratory work to
prepare a proposed coating material using nanosized carbon
black specified in Table 1. For real insulators, the applied
voltage is constant but the variation occurs in the pollution
level. As the pollution level increases, length of dry bands
decreases and this variation represents an increase in voltage
over the dry band.
In the experimental coating specimen, nanosized carbon black
was used as a filler to control the nonlinear characteristics of
coating material and to reduce the dry band arcing thereby
improving the proactive flashover performance of high voltage
insulators. I-V characteristics of this coating were
experimentally determined with different nanosized carbon
black loadings to establish the suitable nanofiller loading.
Also, theoretical model of nonlinear characteristics of the
coating material is presented. Then a theoretical model for
predicting the required applied voltage which is sufficient for
initiation of dry band arcing is proposed and experimentally
verified as following.
Table 1. Specifications of nanosized carbon black particles.
Particle Diameter 80 nm
BET Surface Area 850 m2/g
Resistivity 50 Ω.cm
3.1 EXPERIMENTAL WORK
A composite coating consisting of silicone rubber,
polystyrene and colors was experimentally evaluated towards
performing coating material with good properties. Table 2
shows the composition of the base coating material and their
percentages from the total weight. Silicone rubber and
polystyrene are dissolved into a CCl4 solvent. Nanosized
carbon black is added to the solution at different loadings, as
discussed in the next subsections, and mixed very well using a
sonicator. Finally; the required colors are added to the
composite. Silicon rubber gives the composite hydrophobic
nature. Also, polystyrene gives hydrophobic nature and good
mechanical properties since it represents a coupling medium.
Nanosized carbon black gives the composite good mechanical
properties since it acts as coupling bridges between the
mixture molecules and controls nonlinear characteristics of the
coating material. An electrical sprayer is used to coat the
insulators.
The experimental configuration was built as schematically
shown in Figure 4, however without the presence of water film
in order to measure the I-V characteristics of coating material.
The length (L) between the high voltage electrodes is 5 cm.
The two electrodes are made of stainless steel. The glass
insulated material is coated with a material of 1mm thickness
filled with nanosized carbon black at different loadings to
control its nonlinear characteristics. The I-V characteristics
were measured. Using 15 kV Megger, coating material
resistance variation with applied voltage was experimentally
determined at the same loadings of nanosized carbon black.
2158 M. E. Ibrahim et al.: Nanofilled Nonlinear Coating Material for Improving Proactive Flashover Performance

Dividing the applied voltage over the corresponding measured Table 2. Composition of Coating Material.
resistance, I-V curves can be plotted. The experimental results Content %Wt
are depicted as points in Figure 5 that the plus, circle and Silicone Rubber 30
rhombus marks are measured at different nanosized carbon Polystyrene 50
black loadings 1%, 3% and 6%, respectively. It is worth Colours 20
mentioning that for the material of 6% wt nanofiller addition,
there is no dry band arcing occurs but this percent is found to
be unsuitable as the current passing through the material,
when coated to a real field insulator made of porcelain, is Coating1 (Conductivity = 1e-6 & Dielectric Constant = 6)
found to be 30 mA at 8 kV applied voltage. Accordingly, Coating2 (Conductivity = 1e-4 & Dielectric Constant = 15)
filling percents above 6% are not studied. 10
Streamer Threshold

Electric Field Intensity, kV/cm

8

4
(a) (b)
Figure 1. Simulated specimen. (a) Continuous water film covers coated
insulator (Dry band length = 0.2 cm and water film thickness = 0.01 cm). 2
(b) 21 water droplets covers coated insulator (500µl each with 0.2 cm dry
band between the drops).
0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Coating 1 (Conductivity = 1e-6 & Dielectric Constant = 6) Distance, cm
Coating 2 (Conductivity = 1e-4 & Dielectric Constant = 15 a) At different coating characteristics.
25
Electric Field Intensity, kV/cm

Coating 1 (Conductivity = 1e-6 & Dielectric Constant = 6)

20
Coating 2 (Conductivity = 1e-6 & Dielectric Constant = 15)
10
15 Streamer Threshold
Streamer Threshold
Electric Field Intensity, kV/cm

10 8

5 6

0 4
0 1 2 3 4 5
Distance, cm

a) At different coating characteristics. 2

Coating1 (Conductivity = 1e-6 & Dielectric Constant = 6)

Coating2 (Conductivity = 1e-6 & Dielectric Constant = 15) 0
0 1 2 3 4 5
25 Distance, cm
b) At different coating dielectric constants.
Electric Field Intensity, kV/cm

20 Figure 3. Electric field distribution of polluted hydrophobic coated insulator,

Salinity = 1mS/m.
15
Streamer Threshold

10

0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Distance, cm
b) At different coating dielectric constants.
Figure 2. Electric field distribution of Hydrophilic polluted coated insulator,
Salinity = 1mS/m. Figure 4. Coated insulator with x dry band length.
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 21, No. 5; October 2014 2159

3.2 NONLINEAR CHARACTERISTICS OF PROPOSED 3.3 THE PROPOSED MODEL OF DRY BAND
MATERIAL ARCING VOLTAGE
The I-V characteristics of coating material are nonlinear and Based on the experimental configuration shown in Figure 4
it can be expressed as: and considering the formation of continuous water film with
V = k.L.Iα (1) dry band, Equation (1) can be modified to be:
where, V is the applied voltage in kV, I is the current in mA,
V = k.x.Iα + R(x).(L-x).I (2)
k and α are coating material constants depending on filler
loading, The value of α is determined from the experimental where, x is the dry band length, R(x) is the water film
results and is found to be 0.057 and independent on filler resistance per unit length in MΩ/cm.
loading. The values of k are determined experimentally using Since dry band arcing represents an essential stage of
the experimental results marked in Figure 5 by points. Their proactive flashover, the nonlinear characteristics of coating
values are fitted to get a good agreement with experimental material are used to reduce the electric field intensity over the
results as shown by solid, dash and dot curves in Figure 5 at dry band by allowing the leakage current to pass through the
different nanosized carbon black loadings 1%, 3% and 6%, coating material. To illustrate the impact of nanosized carbon
repectively. This figure shows that for lower value of k, black loadings on reduction of electric field intensity, the
current through coating material is larger at the same voltage average electric field intensity is estimated. Equation (2) is
as compared to material of higher k and its variation doesn’t solved using MATLAB programming and the average electric
change linearly with the filler loading. This figure also shows field intensity (voltage per unit length) is computed. Figure 7
that the characteristics of coating material is controlled by shows the variation of electric field intensity versus applied
addition of nanosized carbon black and the addition is limited voltage for 5cm distance between the high voltage electrodes,
by the value of current passing through the material at normal 1 MΩ/cm pollution resistance, 1cm dry band region and the
withstand voltage (in order of 1mA as in glaze insulators). two effectiveness characteristics at k equals 8 and 10. From
Also, the relation between coating resistance and applied this figure, electric field intensity over the coating material
voltage is determined as shown in Figure 6 considering the and hence over the dry band decreases for the lower value of k
same nanosized carbon black loadings. The coating resistance at the same applied voltage. In other words, for the same value
is significantly increased by decreasing nanosized carbon of electric field intensity, a greater applied voltage is required
black loadings (that is depicted by increasing the constant k in for the lower value of k. The important notice here, this occurs
the figure). only in the nonlinear region.
5 12
Experimental (1% wt ) k1=10
Equation1 (k=10) k2=8
10
Experimental (3% wt )
Electric Field Intensity, kV/cm

4
Equation1 (k=8)
Experimental (6% wt ) 8
Equation1 (k=0.45)
Current, mA

3 Streamer Threshold
6

2
4

1 2

0
0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 Voltage, kV
Voltage, kV
Figure 7. Average electric field intensity over the dry band, x=1cm.
Figure 5. Experimental and theoretical I-V Characteristics of the coatings per
unit length.
To establish dry band arcing voltage model, Equation (2) is
12000 140
k=0.45
solved and the electric field intensity over the dry band length
120 is compared with the streamer threshold. However, 8 kV/cm
10000 100 streamer threshold gives low error values for dry band lengths
Resistance, MOhm

80 less than or equal 2cm, but the error increases with the
Resistance, MOhm

8000 60 increase in dry band length over this value. So, streamer
40 threshold is experimentally determined to reduce the error at
6000 20
all distances, and then curve fitting is used to get its form as:
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Voltage, kV
4000
8 for x≤ 2cm
Streamer Threshold (kV/cm)= (3)
2000
k=10
-0.43x+9 for 2cm<x≤ 5cm
k=8
0
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Figure 8 shows a flowchart that illustrates the adopted
Voltage, kV computation technique of the dry band arcing voltage. This
Figure 6. Resistance-Voltage characteristics of the coatings. technique depends on computing the applied voltage on the
2160 M. E. Ibrahim et al.: Nanofilled Nonlinear Coating Material for Improving Proactive Flashover Performance

coated specimen which is sufficient for arc production. This is

done using the available data such as pollution resistance, total 40
k1=15
length between the two electrodes, the dry band length and k2=10
nonlinear characteristics of coating material. Using this data, 35
k3=8
applied voltage is increased until the electric field strength

D ry B and A rcing Voltage, kV

30 k4=6
over the dry band reaches the streamer threshold. This value of
applied voltage is recorded and the process is repeated until 25
the dry band reaches to total distance between electrodes.
Using this technique, the dry band arcing voltage is computed. 20

15

10

0
20 1 3 4 5
Dry Band Length, cm
Figure 9. Dry band arcing voltage using 8 kV/cm streamer threshold.

35
k1=15
k2=10
30
D ry B and A rcing V oltage, kV k3=8
k4=6
25

20

15

10

5
Figure 8. Flowchart of the adopted computation technique of the dry band
arcing voltage. 0
2 0 3 1 4 5
Dry Band Length, cm
Figure 10. Dry band arcing voltage using proposed streamer threshold.
Figures 9 and 10 show the variation of dry band arcing
voltage versus dry band length. To validate the proposed
computation technique, an experimental setup similar to 40
Figure 4 was built and the applied voltage was raised slowly Experimental
until dry band arcing was occurred. This procedure was 35
Theoretical ( Proposed Threshold )
repeated five times; however a very small deviation in the Theoretical ( 8kV/cm Threshold )
D ry B and A rcing V oltage, kV

recorded voltage was found. The above procedure was applied 30

on six different dry band distances where these distances are
created and controlled before voltage applying. The
25
corresponding average voltage was recorded as shown in
Figures 11 and 12. These figures illustrate the experimental
20
validation of the proposed model at k = 8 and 10, respectively.
From these figures, a good agreement is attained between the
15
proposed streamer threshold and experimental results.
Figure 13 shows the effect of constant k on dry band arcing
10
voltage at different values of pollution resistance. From this
figure, a decrease in pollution resistance causes a decrease in
5
the applied voltage required for dry band arcing and vice 0 1 2 3 4 5
versa. Also, for values of k larger than 10, there is no any Dry Band Distance, cm
effect on dry band arcing performance. Figure 11. Dry band arcing voltage at filler loading 3% (k=8).
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 21, No. 5; October 2014 2161

Contact angle of water droplets with the proposed coating

40 material is measured to evaluate the class of hydrophobicity of
Experimental
35 Theoretical ( Proposed Threshold ) the proposed coating material. The hydrophobicity of the
Theoretical ( 8kV/cm Threshold ) insulator surface is classified based on STRI 92/1 standard
D ry B and A rcing Voltage, kV

30 [22]. The actual wetting appearance on the insulator has to be

identified with one of the seven hydrophobicity classes. Figure
25 15 shows a photograph of a water droplet of 500 µl on a glass
substrate coated with the proposed material. The contact angle
20
is measured for three droplets in the same surface. The
15 average contact angle is found to be 101o approximately. This
means that the proposed coating material is from class 1 with
10 respect to its hydrophibicity.
5

0
0 1 2 3 4 5
Dry Band Distance, cm
Figure 12. Dry band arcing voltage at filler loading 1% (k=10).

18 Figure 15. Contact angle of 500 µl water droplet on a coated glass substrate.
Pollution Resistance = 0.05 MOhm/cm
Pollution Resistance = 0.3 MOhm/cm
16 Pollution Resistance = 0.5 MOhm/cm
Pollution Resistance = 1 MOhm/cm 5 SURFACE CURRENT MEASUREMENT
Dry Band Arcing Voltage, kV

14 In this section, the experimental setup is carried out for

measuring surface current of real field insulators made of glass
12
and porcelain (with the dimensions shown in Table 3) without
and with coating. The measured currents of uncoated and
10
coated insulators are presented at different equivalent salt
deposit density (ESDD) and at different loadings of nanosized
8
carbon black.
6
Table 3. Test insulators configuration
Type Diameter (D) Creepage Distance Height
4
7.5 8 8.5 9 9.5 10 10.5 11 Glass 320 mm 480 mm 195 mm
K
Figure 13. Dry band arcing voltage variation versus k, x= 0.5cm. Porcelain 280 mm 320 mm 146 mm

4 VISIBLE EVALUATION 5.1 EXPERIMENTAL SETUP

Figure 14 shows photographs of water droplets on the Figure 16 shows a schematic diagram of the experimental
uncoated and coated real field insulators. From these photos, setup. It consists of a fog chamber made of glass to give the
continuous water films are formed on the surface of uncoated ability to monitor what happens inside it. The tested insulator
either glass or porcelain insulator. But, only discrete droplets is suspended inside the chamber. The insulator pin is
are formed on the surface of both coated glass and porcelain connected to a high voltage source and the cap is connected to
insulators. So that, the surface current is expected to be much the grounding system through an ohmic resistor (330 Ω). A
lower for coated insulators in comparison to uncoated ones so storage oscilloscope is connected in parallel across the
that, the flashover performance of the coated insulators is resistor. The voltage waveform across the resistor is captured
expected to be improved. every 2 minutes. The RMS value of the measured voltage is
divided by the resistance value to obtain the RMS value of the
surface leakage current. Before testing; insulator is sprayed by
a saline solution, the salinity is defined according to ESDD
reported in IEC 60815 [23], and left for a one day to dry. The
polluted insulator is suspended inside the chamber with
entrance of a clean fog from a hole in the chamber side.

5.2 MEASUREMENTS AT DIFFERENT ESDD VALUES

Figures 17 and 18 show the surface current variations in the
time domain for the uncoated and coated glass insulator at
Figure 14. Photographs of wetted uncoated and coated insulators (glass &
porcelain) heavy and medium pollution levels (0.6 mg/cm2 and 0.2
2162 M. E. Ibrahim et al.: Nanofilled Nonlinear Coating Material for Improving Proactive Flashover Performance
2
mg/cm are selected). From these figures, the following points Figures 19 and 20 show the surface current variation with
can be concluded: time for the uncoated and coated porcelain insulator at very
 Increase in ESDD can give higher values of surface heavy and heavy pollution levels (2 mg/cm2 and 0.6 mg/cm2).
current, therefore, the increase in ESDD or pollution The comparison between the uncoated and coated insulators
level reduces the flashover voltage. ensures that the surface current of the coated insulator is much
 Surface current of the coated insulator is much lower lower than the uncoated one. Therefore, a better flashover
than the uncoated one as the surface is hydrophobic performance of the coated insulator is expected to be
and no continuous water film is formed. This confirms achieved.
the efficiency of the proposed coating material.
16
 For uncoated insulator, the current starts to rise after Uncoated
some time as the pollution layer starts in solution. This 14 Coated
action takes some time and the current starts to
12
decrease again due to the surface cleaning.

Surface Current, mA
10

6
Os cil losc ope
4
Resistor

2
HV T est In sul ator

0
Gr ound
0 100 200 300 400
Time, minutes
FOG C ham be r
Figure 19. Surface current of uncoated and coated, 0.5 % wt filled, porcelain
Figure 16. Fog chamber for insulators testing. insulators at 6 kV (RMS), 2 mg/cm2

14
Uncoated Uncoated
25
Coated Coated
12
20
Surface Current, mA

Surface Current, mA

10

15 8

10 6

4
5
2
0
0 100 200 300 400 0
Time, minutes 0 100 200 300 400
Figure 17. Surface current of uncoated and coated, 0.5 % wt filled, glass Time, minutes
insulators at 11 kV (RMS), 0.6 mg/cm2 Figure 20. Surface current of uncoated and coated, 0.5 % wt filled, porcelain
insulators at 6 kV (RMS), 0.6 mg/cm2.

20 Uncoated
Coated 5.3 EVALUATION AT DIFFERENT FILLER LOADINGS
Figure 21 shows photographs of real field porcelain
insulators coated with the proposed material at two different
Surface Current, mA

15
filler loadings (0.5% and 3%). Surface current is measured for
these insulators. Figure 22 shows the surface current variation
10 with time for different filler loadings at heavy pollution level
(0.6 mg/cm2 is selected). From this figure, surface current is
increased by increasing the percent of nanosized carbon black
5 in the coating material as the coating material provides an easy
path for surface current. Also, current peaks are observed with
increasing the content of nanosized carbon black. The
0 presence of these peaks may come due to surface dryness
0 100 200 300 400
Tme, minutes
resulting from surface heating effect. Finally, the flashover
Figure 18. Surface current of uncoated and coated, 0.5 % wt filled, glass performance is expected to be enhanced as illustrated before in
insulators at 11 kV (RMS), 0.2 mg/cm2 dry band arcing measurement.
IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 21, No. 5; October 2014 2163
[4] H. Su, Z. Jia, Z. Guan and L. Li, “Durability of RTV-Coated Insulators
Used in Subtropical Areas”, IEEE Trans. Dielectr. Electr. Insul., Vol.
18, No. 3, pp. 767-774, 2011.
[5] Z. Xu, Z. Jia, Z. Li, X. Wei, Z. Guan, M. Macalpine, Y. Zhao and Y. Li,
“Anti-Icing Performance of RTV Coatings on Porcelain Insulators by
Controlling the Leakage Current”, IEEE Trans. Dielectr. Electr. Insul.,
Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 760-766, 2011.
[6] G. Heger, H.J. Vermeulen, J.P. Holtzhausen, and W.L. Vosloo, “A
Comparative Study of Insulator Materials Exposed to High Voltage AC
Figure 21. Porcelain Insulator Coated with 0.5% and 3% of Filler Material. and DC Surface Discharges”, IEEE Trans. Dielectr. Electr. Insul., Vol.
17, No. 2, pp. 513-520, 2010.
14 [7] A.N. Jahromi, E.A. Cherney, S.H. Jayaram and L.C. Simon, “Aging
Uncoated Insulator
Composite Coated, 3% Carbon black Characteristics of RTV Silicone Rubber Coatings”, IEEE Trans.
12 Dielectr. Electr. Insul., Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 444-452, 2008.
Composite Coated, 0.5% Carbon black
[8] Z. Jia, S. Fang, H. Gao, Z. Guan, L. Wang and Z. Xu, “Development of
Surface Current, mA

10 RTV Silicone Coatings in China: Overview and Bibliography [Feature

Article]”, IEEE Insul. Mag., Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 28-41, 2008.
8 [9] K. Siderakis, D. Agoris, and S. Gubanski, “Salt Fog Evaluation of RTV
SIR Coatings with Different Fillers”, IEEE Transactions on Power
6 Delivery, Vol. 23, No. 4, pp. 2270-2277, 2008.
[10] H. Gao, Z. Jia, Z. Guan, L. Wang, and K. Zhu “Investigation of
4 Field-Aged RTV-Coated Insulators Used in Heavily Contaminated
Areas”, IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 1117-1124,
2 2007.
[11] E. A. Cherney, A. El_Hag, S. Li, R. S. Gorur, L. Meyer, I. Ramirez, M.
0 Marzinotto and G-M. George, “RTV Silicone Rubber Pre-Coated
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 Ceramic Insulators for Transmission Lines”, IEEE Trans. Dielectr.
Time, minutes Electr. Insul., Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 237-244, 2013.
Figure 22. Surface current of uncoated and coated (filled at 0.5% and 3%) [12] Z. Xu, Z. Jia, Z. Li, X. Wei, Z. Guan, M. M. Alpine, Y. Zhao and Y. Li,
porcelain insulators at 6 kV (RMS), 0.6 mg/cm2. “Anti-Icing Performance of RTV Coatings on Porcelain Insulators by
Controlling the Leakage Current”, IEEE Trans. Dielectr. Electr. Insul.,
Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 760-766, 2011.
6 CONCLUSIONS [13] W. Liao, Z. Jia, Z. Guan, L. Wang, J. Yang, J. Fan, Z. Su, and J. Zhou,
“Reducing Ice Accumulation on Insulators by Applying Semiconducting
A new hydrophobic nanofilled coating material has been RTV Silicone Coating”, IEEE Trans. Dielectr. Electr. Insul., Vol. 14,
presented experimentally and evaluated with glass and No. 6, pp. 1446-1454, 2007.
porcelain insulators. The study has shown a good dry band [14] R. Hackam, “Low-Molecular Weight Silicon Fluid in RTV Silicone
Rubber Coatings”, IEEE Trans. Dielectr. Electr. Insul., Vol. 7, pp. 461-
arcing performance of the proposed coating material. Also, a 462, 2000.
computation technique for dry band arcing voltage has been [15] F. Obenaus, “Contamination flashover and creepage path length,” Dtsch.
presented and a good agreement with experimental results has Elektrochnik, Vol.12, pp. 135-136, 1958
been achieved. Finally, surface current of polluted coated and [16] G. Neumarker, “Contamination state and creepage path,” Deustsche
Akad., Berlin, vol. 1, pp. 352-359, 1959.
uncoated real field insulators made of glass and porcelain has [17] F. A. M. Rizk, “A criterion for AC flashover of contaminated
been measured at different ESDD and at different filler insulators”, Paper No 71 CP135-PWR, IEEE Winter Power Meeting,
loadings. The evaluation promoted that the coated insulators 1971.
attained a better proactive flashover performance under wet [18] F. A. M. Rizk, “Mathematical models for pollution flashover,” Electra
No. 78, pp. 71-103, 1981.
and polluted conditions as compared to the uncoated ones. [19] D.C. Jolly, T.C. Cheng and D.M. Otten, “ Dynamic theory of discharge
growth over contaminated insulator surfaces,” Conference Paper No 74-
REFERENCES [20]
068-3, IEEE PES Winter Power Meeting, 1974.
R. Sundararajan, Dynamic Arc Modeling of Pollution Flashover of
[1] E.A. Cherney, “RTV silicone-a high tech solution for a dirty insulator Insulators under Energized with Direct Current Voltage, Ph.D.
problem,” IEEE Electr. Insul. Mag., Vol.11, No. 6, pp. 8 -14, 1995. Dissertation, Dept of Elec Engg, Arizona State University, USA
[2] R. Gorur, R. Olsen, J. Crane, T. Adams, J. Jurney, and S. Venkataraman, 1993.
“Prediction of Flashover Voltage of Insulators Using Low Voltage [21] L. Lan and R. S. Gorur, “Computation of ac Wet Flashover Voltage of
Surface Resistance Measurement”, Final Project Report, PSERC Ceramic and Composite Insulators IEEE Trans. Dielectr. Electr. Insul.,
Publication 06-42, 2006. Vol. 15, No. 5, pp. 1346-1352, 2008.
[3] R. S. Gorur, S. S. Rajan, and O. G. Amburgey “Contamination [22] STRI 92/1 Hydrophobicity Classification Guide,
performance of polymeric insulating materials used for outdoor www.stri.se/wwwpublic/STRI_Guide_1_92_1.pdf
insulation applications,” IEEE Trans. Electr. Insul., Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. [23] IEC 815 Selection and Dimensioning of High Voltage Insulators for
713-716, 1989. Polluted Conditions, Std. 1986.