Effects of saline-water flow rate and air speed on leakage current in RTV coatings

Room temperature vulcanizing (RTV) silicone rubber is increasingly being used to coat porcelain and glass insulators in order to improve their electrical performance in the presence of pollution and moisture. A study of the dependence of leakage current, pulse current count and total charge flowing across the surface of RTV on the flow rate of the saline water and on the compressed air pressure used to create the salt-fog is reported. The fog was directed at the insulating rods either from one or two sides. The RTV was fabricated from polydimethylsiloxane polymer, a filler of alumina trihydrate (ATH), a polymerization catalyst and fumed silica reinforcer, all dispersed in 1,1,1-trichlomethane solvent. The saline water flow rate was varied in the range 0.4 to 2.0 l/min. The compressed air pressure at the input of the fog nozzles was varied from 0.20 to 0.63 MPa. The air speed at the surface of the insulating rods was found to depend linearly on the air pressure measured at the inlet to the nozzles and varied in the range 3 to 14 km/hr. The leakage current increased with increasing flow rate and increasing air speed. This is attributed to the increased loss of hydrophobicity with a larger quantity of saline fog and a larger impact velocities of fog droplets interacting with the surface of the RTV coating