Leakage current analysis of polymeric insulators under uniform and non‐uniform pollution conditions

Abstract

This study presents two different methods under uniform and non‐uniform pollution layer in order to measure and calculate the leakage current (LC) of silicone rubber insulators. Experimental test for evaluating the LC analysis of polluted insulator have been done in a laboratory clean fog chamber. The electric field and potential distributions were obtained from finite element method software for 3D models. The mathematical background and circuit theory are described in details by a section of insulator and using the extended form factor formula. The surface conductivity used in the calculations was extracted from the measured LC after wetting rate. LC characteristics under 1 : 1, 1 : 2, 1 : 5 and 1 : 10 ratios of top to bottom surface salt deposit density on polymeric insulators are studied. To verify the proposed models of this study, the results of experimental data and two other approaches are compared with together before dry‐band formation. Moreover, a dynamic LC model under uniform pollution layer has been introduced and extended in order to calculate the LC when the formation of dry‐bands along the insulator surface occurs. The dynamic model is drawn from experimental data and measured surface conductivity.