Behavior of insoluble materials in artificial contamination tests

It was reported that the dc flashover voltage under an artificial contamination test sometimes was affected considerably by the type of insoluble materials in the contaminant. To clarify the cause of this phenomenon, the physical characteristics of some contamination slurries and the conductivity of the artificially contaminated insulator surfaces are investigated experimentally. The test results lead to the conclusion that the variation in the flashover voltage is caused mainly by the characteristics of conductive films formed on the insulator surface in the clean fog test.