Experimental analysis of characteristics of saturation pollution on high voltage insulator in North China

The pollution on the surface of high voltage insulator including a composite insulator, ceramic insulator and glass insulator may lead to the pollution flashover of electrical outdoor insulation, thus, the characteristics of pollution on the surface of high voltage insulator deserve detail investigated. In the present work, the characteristics of saturation pollution on high voltage insulator in North China were analyzed in terms of pollution particle size analysis, pollution particle morphology and chemical component analysis. Firstly, the equivalent salt deposit density (ESDD) was measured according to the IEC 60815, the results showed that the ESDD for composite insulator was larger than the ESDD for ceramic and glass insulators. Secondly, the particle size analysis showed that the distributions of pollution particle size on ceramic and glass insulators were almost the same, however, the distribution of pollution particle size on composite insulator was quite different from the former two, more specifically, the pollution particle with lager size can be observed on the surface of composite insulator. It should be noted that due to the diffusion of LMW and the interaction between the LMW and pollution, the ESDD on composite insulator was larger and the particle size on composite insulator was alas larger than that on ceramic insulator and glass insulator, therefore, the evaluation on the pollution performance of high voltage insulator should be more comprehensive. The present study is a case study of the pollution and is helpful for better understanding of the pollution characteristics on high voltage insulator used in North China.