Abstract
In this Paper, a flashover prediction method using the leakage current in the contaminated EPDM distribution polymer insulator is proposed. The leakage currents on the insulator were measured simultaneously with the different salt fog application such as 25g, 50g, and 75g per liter of deionized water. Then, the measured leakage currents were enveloped and transformed as the CDFS using the Hilbert transform and the level crossing rate, respectively. The obtained CDFS having different gradients(angles) were used as a important factor for the flashover prediction of the contaminated polymer insulator. Thus, the average angle change with an identical salt fog concentration was within a range of 20 degrees, and the average angle change among the different salt fog concentrations was 5 degrees. However, it is hard to be distinguished each other because the gradient differences among the CDFS were very small. So, the new weighting value was defined and used to solve this problem. Through simulation, it Is verified that the proposed method has the capability of the flashover prediction.