Polymer insulator profiles evaluated in a fog chamber

The authors present the results of fog chamber experiments done to examine the tracking and erosion performance of polymer insulator profiles. The effect of weathershed material, construction, orientation, and AC and DC voltage are examined. Correlation between cylindrical rod specimens of materials and insulator profiles is shown. The protected leakage path provided by the weathershed is found to play a major role in the tracking and erosion performances of polymer insulators. The resistance to tracking and erosion of insulator profiles with DC is shown to be reduced in comparison to AC. Cylindrical rods of material yielded the same ranking of material performance as insulator profiles but in a shorter time