Pollution severity instrument for relevance to high-voltage insulators: hardware development employing Peltier junctions

This paper is essentially a progress report on the development of a pollution severity monitor, as relevant to the flashover strength of outdoor high-voltage insulators. Peltier coolers are employed to reduce slightly the temperature of a representative insulator so as to enhance the deposition of a controlled amount of the air's water vapour, thereby enabling the electrical conductance of the insulator's polluted surface to be measured. Drawing upon previously published theory and design considerations, the emphasis has now turned to the experimental stage in order to determine the key factors in the construction of the hardware. Preliminary results are sufficiently encouraging for the project to progress now to the prototype-stage.