Numerical Analysis on Factors Affecting Hydrophobicity and Icephobicity of the High Voltage Insulator

Water drops, snow, ice and pollution or their mixture on the surface of insulator affect the insulator performance and results in electrical breakdown of insulator. In last few decades, hydrophobicity and icephobicity is the utmost need to the surface of the insulators but under various environmental circumstances the properties of these surface changes and leads to deterioration of it. In this work, two cases have been analyzed to perceive the electric field dependent behavior of insulators in presence of humidity in the air and the presence of snowflake interactions with the dust, water, and surface roughness has also been investigated to understand the field dependent behavior of it. The results show distortion in the surface electric field resulting into localized electric filed intensification under both cases of investigation. The electrostatic forces playing a major role in initializing all field intensification at the triple point junction of drops and at the edges of the snowflake during interaction in presence of all other environmental conditions.