Study of electrical breakdown voltage in a partially damaged glass insulators chain with polycarbonate protectors

In this work, the experimental results of high-voltage in industrial frequency and switching impulse tests conducted to evaluate the influence of polycarbonate protectors (polyprotect) on the values of electrical breakdown voltage of a glass insulators chain with 16 units partially damaged, containing 9 broken insulators, are presented simulating a transmission line of 230 kV. The polyprotect have been designed to protect the glass part against the damage due to the vandalism actions. For testing, the broken insulators have been distributed along the chain in two different configurations. Electrical breakdown voltage values were compared to the same configuration, but without polyprotect. As a result, higher value of the electrical breakdown voltage had been observed in a configuration with uniform distribution of the entire insulators along of the chain. However, no significant different values in the electrical breakdown voltage were observed.