Experimental and simulation studies on room temperature vulcanization (RTV) silicone material under inclined plane tracking and erosion test

In an electric power system, one of the most vital equipment is the insulator. In early times, porcelain insulators are commonly used in transmission as well as in distribution network. The proposal of this work is to make sure that safer and more protected distribution system, to decrease maintenance expenses of the insulation system and to enhance system efficiency. The aim of this paper was to study and assess the performance of RTV (Room temperature vulcanization) silicone materials used to reduce flashover in high voltage insulators that run in polluted environments. Electrical tracking is a development process of a conducting path across the material due to erosion under High Voltage application. The leakage current on the polluted surface resulted in the material deterioration. Electric field and voltage distribution for RTV silicone material under contamination condition have been done using finite element analysis. The simulation works using Finite Element software of ElecNet was applied to the tracking test condition of IEC 60587 standards. The results show that the electric field strength is high on the edges of pollutant track at a higher voltage level, and pollutant track has no effect on the voltage distribution along the surface. Experiments have been conducted for the RTV silicone material for the different voltage and contaminant flow as per the standards. From the results, it was observed that increase in voltage potential eventually increases the electric field distribution. The leakage current was measured across the shunt using the Pico scope. A protective circuit was made across the shunt. The leakage current pattern has been studied on the different applied voltage for the RTV silicone material. Room Temperature Vulcanization silicone material shows an evidence of good insulation to tracking and erosion test.