Experimental Analysis of Ceramic Insulators with Different Profiles Under Very High Pollution Zone by Solid Layer Method

The outdoor insulators in service are exposed to marine, agricultural waste and industrial pollution. These pollutants get deposited on the insulator surface and lead to flashovers under fog conditions. There has been an abnormal increase in pollution levels due to rapid industrialization in the past two decades. This exponential increase in pollution levels causes frequent flashovers of insulators, leading to the tripping of transmission lines consecutively may result in blackouts, which severely affects the reliability of the power systems. The ESDD and NSDD measurement on the insulator surface are critical parameters for determining the pollution severity levels. This paper discusses ESDD and NSDD measurement procedures. In this paper, field pollution severity has been simulated in the Artificial Pollution Lab. In addition, the Non-Soluble Deposit Density (NSDD) component of pollutants for designing the creepage distance of ceramic insulators under heavy pollution conditions has been emphasized.