The Effect of Contaminants on Tracking Aging in Polymer Insulating Materials

고분자 절연재료의 트랙킹 열화에 미치는 오손액의 영향

Some polymer materials including epoxy resin are being instead of porcelain for outdoor insulating materials such as insulators bushings cable terminators and surge arrester housing. And the largest problem to be overcomed is the tracking and erosion of the outdoor polymer material brought about by dry band arcing during prolonged exposure to contaminations. In this paper the effect of surface tension wettability flow rate of contaminants with varying surfactant content and frequency of applied voltage on the tracking breakdown of epoxy insulating materials were investigated. As the flow rate of contaminant is increased the surface resistivity is decreased and the leakage current is increased the time to tracking breakdown is decreased. It is found that time to tracking breakdown depends on the surface tension of contaminant that is difference of wettability. And as the frequency of applied voltage is increased time to tracking breakdown decreased.