Portable ADSS surface contamination meter

All dielectric self-supporting (ADSS) fiber optic cable is known to have a limited installation lifetime in some environments when installed near high voltage transmission lines. Dry band arcing has been identified as a contributing factor in the short service life for some of these cables. It has been hypothesized that contamination on the jacket of the fiber optic cable will be an indicator of cable installations that will have a short service life. In this work a portable transducer for measuring contamination levels on the jacket of ADSS cable is being designed, constructed and calibrated in a high voltage environment. The transducer will be designed to operate in both wet and dry conditions. It will measure the electrical resistance per meter of contaminated in-service ADSS fiber optic cable. The transducer will be effective in the range 10⁵ to 10⁷ Ω/m. It will be computer controlled thus requiring little intervention by the operator. This research will include laboratory scale tests with ADSS cable and a 365 kV AC power supply