Improving the surface flashover performance of epoxy resin by plasma treatment:a comparison of fluorination and silicon deposition under different modes

This work treats the Al_(2)O_(3)-ER sample surface using dielectric barrier discharge fluorination(DBDF),DBD silicon deposition(DBD-Si),atmospheric-pressure plasma jet fluorination(APPJ-F)and APPJ silicon deposition(APPJ-Si).By comparing the surface morphology,chemical components and electrical parameters,the diverse mechanisms of different plasma modification methods used to improve flashover performance are revealed.The results show that the flashover voltage of the DBDF samples is the largest(increased by 21.2%at most),while the APPJ-F method has the worst promotion effect.The flashover voltage of the APPJ-Si samples decreases sharply when treatment time exceeds 180 s,but the promotion effect outperforms the DBD-Si method during a short modified time.For the mechanism explanation,firstly,plasma fluorination improves the surface roughness and introduces shallow traps by etching the surface and grafting fluorine-containing groups,while plasma silicon deposition reduces the surface roughness and introduces a large number of shallow traps by coating Si Oxfilm.Furthermore,the reaction of the DBD method is more violent,while the homogeneity of the APPJ modification is better.These characteristics influence the effects of fluorination and silicon deposition.Finally,increasing the surface roughness and introducing shallow traps accelerates surface charge dissipation and inhibits flashover,but too many shallow traps greatly increase the dissipated rate and facilitate surface flashover instead.

Research on Flashover Voltage Prediction of Catenary Insulator Based on CaSO_(4) Pollution with Different Mass Fraction

Pollution flashover accidents occur frequently in railway OCS in saline-alkali areas.To accurately predict the pollution flashover voltage of insulators,a pollution flashover warning should be made in advance.According to the operating environment of insulators along the Qinghai-Tibet railway,the pollution flashover experiments were designed for the cantilever composite insulator FQBG-25/12.Through the experiments,the flashover voltage under the influence of soluble contaminant density(SCD)of different pollution components,non-soluble deposit density(NSDD),temperature(T),and atmospheric pressure(P)was obtained.On this basis,the GA-BP neural network prediction model was established.P,SCD,NSDD,CaSO_(4) mass fraction(w(CaSO_(4))),and T were taken as input parameters,50%flashover voltage(U_(50%))of the insulator was taken as output parameters.The results showed that the prediction deviation was less than 10%,which meets the basic engineering requirements.The results could not only provide early warning for the anti-pollution flashover work of the railway power supply department,but also be used as an auxiliary contrast to verify the accuracy of the results of the experiments,and provide a theoretical basis for the classification of pollution levels in different regions.

A Study on Damage Rules on Insulators by Conducting Sols

Insulating parts are easily subjected to pollution which may cause damage to the electric system. A typical disc insulator is chosen as the target to test its flashover voltage by using an artificial pollution system. This test system aims at obtaining characteristic parameters of damage for chosen conducting sola to the selected insulator. Experimental results show that thickness and electric conductivity of pollutant layer over insulators are the main parameters in damage evaluation. The flashover voltage decreases with increase of thickness and/or conductivity. These results provide a better basis on further revealing the damaging nature of conducting sol materials.

Effect of plasma step gradient modification on surface electrical properties of epoxy resin

In this paper,plasma fluorination is combined with plasma silicon deposition to achieve step gradient modification on an epoxy resin surface.The physicochemical characteristics of samples are investigated and the electrical performances measured.The obtained results show that compared with untreated and single treated samples,the samples treated by step gradient modification significantly improve the flashover performance.According to experiment and simulation,the mechanism explanations are summarized as follows.First,it is found that the step gradient conductivity can effectively optimize the electric field distribution of a needle-needle electrode.Then,step gradient modification suppresses the accumulation of surface charge at the triple junction and makes the charge distribution more uniform.Furthermore,it can accelerate the surface dissipation on a high electrical field region and control the dissipation rate on a low electrical field region.All these results can restrain surface discharge and increase the flashover voltage.The step gradient modification method proposed in this paper provides a new idea for improving the surface insulation performance.

Deposition of SiCxHyOz thin film on epoxy resin by nanosecond pulsed APPJ for improving the surface insulating performance

Non-thermal plasma surface modification for epoxy resin（EP）to improve the insulation properties has wide application prospects in gas insulated switchgear and gas insulatedtransmission line.In this paper,a pulsed Ar dual dielectrics atmospheric-pressure plasma jet（APPJ）was used for Si CxHyOzthin film deposition on EP samples.The film deposition was optimized by varying the treatment time while other parameters were kept at constants（treatment distance：10 mm,precursor flow rate：0.6 l min-（-1）,maximum instantaneous power：3.08 k W and single pulse energy：0.18 m J）.It was found that the maximum value of flashover voltages for negative and positive voltage were improved by 18%and 13%when the deposition time was3 min,respectively.The flashover voltage reduced as treatment time increased.Moreover,all the surface conductivity,surface charge dissipation rate and surface trap level distribution reached an optimal value when thin film deposition time was 3 min.Other measurements,such as atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscope for EP surface morphology,Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for EP surface compositions,optical emission spectra for APPJ deposition process were carried out to better understand the deposition processes and mechanisms.The results indicated that the original organic groups（C–H,C–C,C=O,C=C）were gradually replaced by the Si containing inorganic groups（Si–O–Si and Si–OH）.The reduction of C=O in ester group and C=C in p-substituted benzene of the EP samples might be responsible for shallowing the trap level and then enhancing the flashover voltage.However,when the plasma treatment time was longer than 3 min,the significant increase of the surface roughness might increase the trap level depth and then deteriorate the flashover performance.

Experimental research on electric insulator damaged by chemical pollutant

As a main insulating device of power system, insulator can be damaged by chemical pollutant, which does threaten the electric system. An artificial pollution test system is utilized to study the damage mode for a suspension insulator, and the effects of concentration and existing state on damage efficiency of chemical pollutant are studied. Testing results show that the damage mode is flashover damage, whose efficiency increases with the decrease of creepage distance. The concentration of conductive particle of chemical pollution can effectively elevate damage efficiency, though it has a critical value. Unlike natural pollution, chemical pollutant can make insulator flashover damage whether in wet or dry condition. The damage process and relative results reveal the damage rule of insulator by chemical pollutant. Those studies put forward a new means to damage electric insulated device, and provide important reference to the protection design of electric insulator.

Research on Hot-line Cleaning of Artificial Contaminanted Insulator Using High Pressure Hot Water Vapor

The hot-line cleaning of insulator contaminants has a great significance to prevent pollution flashover.The technique of hot-line cleaning insulator contaminants by water vapor is proposed in this paper.The flashover characteristics of insulator under the procedure of cleaning by hot-line water vapor are tested to investigate the security of cleaning system in the operation.Three kinds of insulator are chosed to carry on the experiment.The average flashover voltage,flashover voltage gradient and withstand voltage in35 kV insulators in hot-line cleaning are measured.The results show that the average flashover voltage and withstand voltage of insulators used for hot-line water vapor cleaning are both larger than the operation phase voltage in 35 kV system.The flashover voltage gradient is larger than usual pollution flashover voltage gradient.The system security can be ensured when there is no overvoltage in the system,which verifies that the insulators cleaning method presented in this paper is effective and reliable.

Properties of Creeping Streamer Progressed in Dielectric Barrier with Narrow Gap in PFAE Oil

The behaviors of creeping streamer progressed in the narrow gap with the range of 0.1 mm to 0.2 mm between the pressboard mounted a BSE （back side electrode） and the acrylic resin plate were carried out in PFAE （palm fatty acid ester） oil under variable impulse voltage up to -4-140 kVpeak with ＋1.2/50 μs and ±1.2/1,000μs waveforms. The growth of positive and negative streamers depends on the gap space between two solid dielectrics. And the distinctive polarities of impulse voltage affect in the streamer length and flashover voltage between needle and counter electrodes as well. By decreasing the gap space, the flashover voltage largely increased while the mean velocity of positive streamer significantly decreased under the both polarities of impulse voltage. These results have been compared to commercial mineral oil （transformer oil： JIS-C2320）. It is shown that the behaviors of creeping discharge in both oils elegantly reveal the distinctive phenomena.

Insulation Design Rule for a Spacer in SF_(6)/N_(2)-filled DC Gas Insulated Apparatus

A recurring challenge of a DC SF_(6)/N_(2)-filled GIS/GIL apparatus is the charge accumulation at DC stress.The conventional design rules and knowledge of AC spacers may not be applicable for this new type of apparatus.A novel design rule is proposed considering the effect of accumulated charge on the threshold of electric field strength being resistant to the superposed voltage.A surface charge accumulation simulation model is introduced,and the key parameters in the simulation model are measured.In addition,an experimental platform for a 100 kV spacer flashover test is established.Spacer flashover tests under superimposed voltage with opposing polarities are carried out,and the withstanding voltage of the spacer is obtained.Finally,based on the proposed model,the threshold of the surface electric field strength(tangential component)on the DC spacer in SF_(6)/N_(2) mixed gases is discussed.For a reliable insulation design of a DC GIS/GIL apparatus filled with 0.7 MPa SF_(6)/N_(2),the threshold of surface electric field strength on the DC spacer is 12 kV/mm.The insulation design rule can be referenced in the design of a high-voltage DC SF_(6)/N_(2)-filled GIS/GIL apparatus.

Robust superamphiphobic coatings with gradient and hierarchical architecture and excellent anti-flashover performances

Biomimetic superhydrophobic(SH)coatings have emerged as a promising alternative to traditional room temperature vulcanizing(RTV)silicone rubber coatings for improving the flashover strength of insulators.However,organic contamination occurs in outdoor applications and thus a superamphiphobic(SAP)surface is more desirable but not yet reported for improving flashover performance.Herein,we developed a novel anti-flashover technique by fabricating robust SAP coating with unique gradient and micro-nanoscale hierarchical architecture.The SAP coating was fabricated by sequentially spray-depositing a resin-based primer and a silica-based topcoat on substrates(i.e.,glass slides and insulators).The primer not only functions as an adhesive offering strong adhesion to the substrate but also offers a micromastoid-like structure facilitating the subsequent formation of hierarchical micro-nanostructure.The appropriate spraying pressure leads to a diffusion of the fluorocarbon-modified silica nanoparticles into the primer to form a unique gradient structure,by analogy to inserting bullets into a wood.These features render the SAP coating excellent robustness with strong abrasive resistance,excellent ultraviolet(UV)resistance,and excellent chemical and thermal stability.Pollution flashover property of the SAP coating was explored and compared with that of SH and RTV specimens,from which a novel organic-contamination model to evaluate the flashover performance was proposed.The coated SAP glass insulator demonstrated 42.9%pollution flashover voltage improvement than RTV-coated insulator.These stated unique features reveal the convincing potential of the present SAP coatings to be applied for not only outdoor transmission line insulators for antiflashover but also other fields for self-cleaning,anti-fouling,and anti-icing.

Experimental study on the effect of applying a crossed magnetic field on the insulator flashover behavior in high vacuum

In this study,a possible method of reducing the flashover stress is achieved by the effect of an additional magnetic field in the transverse direction on the main applied electric field.The degree of vacuum used in this study was 5×10^(5) Pa.The magnetic flux density B employed in this study extends from 4×10^(3) to 24×10^(3) T.From the results obtained throughout this work,the transverse magnetic field increases the flashover voltage and decreases the leakage current.The effect of the transverse magnetic field on the surface flashover of the dielectric solid in vacuum shows a marked dependence on the material and the thickness of the test specimen,the vacuum degree,the type of electric field(AC or DC)as well as the type of magnetic field(AC or DC).