Design and testing of an improved profile for silicone rubber composite insulators

Insulators should be designed to perform both their electrical and mechanical functions, without failure or breakage. This paper aims to illustrate that a newly designed silicone shed with a nozzle requires no maintenance to remove mineral deposits. This new design takes advantage of the constant movement of air to remove the surface deposits that commonly cause erosion and collapse in insulators. This cleaning effect results from the passing air, which removes the deposited particles from the shed surface. This approach works well for a silicone-elastomer-coated shed with hydrophobic features. The results of laboratory experiments designed to reproduce the conditions of insulators in the field indicate that the downstream fluid speed is always higher than the upstream speed when air flows over the new silicone elastomer shed. This ensures that particle deposition on the sheds will be minimal, even over long periods. Furthermore, the silicone elastomers used to construct the sheds have high hydrophobicity which further prevents the deposited particles from sticking and facilitates easy cleaning via the air flowing around the insulators.