• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.355-363
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• 2015

HVDC technology has become popular as an economic mode of bulk power transmission over very long distances. Polymeric insulators in HVDC power transmission lines are affected by surface tracking and erosion problems due to contamination deposit, which pose a greater challenge in maintaining the reliability of the HVDC system. In addition, polymeric insulators are also naturally affected by aging due to various environmental stresses, which in turn accelerates the surface tracking and erosion problems. Research works towards the improvement of tracking and erosion resistance of polymeric insulators by adding nano-sized fillers in the base material are being carried out worldwide. However, surface tracking and erosion performance of nano-filled aged polymeric insulators for HVDC applications are not well reported. Hence, in the present work, tracking and erosion resistance of the nano $Al(OH)_3$ filled silicone rubber insulation material has been evaluated under DC voltages at different filler concentrations and aged conditions, as per IEC 60587 test procedures. Leakage current and contact angle measurements were carried out to understand the surface hydrophobicity. Moving average technique was used to analyze the trend followed by leakage current. Water aged specimen shows less tracking resistance when compared with thermal aged specimen. It is observed that nano-filler concentration of 5% is even sufficient to get better tracking/erosion resistance under DC voltages.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.143-146
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• 2008

In this study the thermal impact characteristics by forest fire are extensively investigated using temperature controlled ovens. The test conditions for thermal impact damage are simulated according to the characteristics of natural forest fire. The test pieces are suspension porcelain insulators made by KRI in 2005 for transmission lines. In the thermal impact cycle tests with $300\;^{\circ}C$ thermal impact gradient (-70 to $230\;^{\circ}C$), cycling in 10 minute periods, no critical failures occurred in the test samples even with long cycle times. But in tests with thermal impact gradient from room temperature to $200-600\;^{\circ}C$, cycling in 10 to 30 minute periods, there were critical failures of the porcelain insulators according to the thermal impact gradient and quenching method. In the case of thermal impact by forest fire, it was found of that duration time is more important than the cycling time, and the initiation temperature of porcelain insulator failures is about $300\;^{\circ}C$, in the case of water quenching, many cracks and fracture of the porcelain occurred. It was found that the thermal impact failure is closely related to the displacement in the cement by thermal stress as confirmed by simulation. It was estimated that the initiation displacement by the thermal impact of $300\;^{\circ}C$ is about 0.1 %. Above 1% displacement, it is expected that the most porcelain insulators would fail.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.603-609
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• 2015

Dry air is an excellent alternative to $SF_6$ gas and is used as an insulation gas in Eco-friendly Gas Insulated Switchgears (EGISs), which has gained popularity in industry. Solid insulators in EGIS play an important role in electrical insulation. On the other hand, surface discharge can occur easily when solid insulators are used. This paper explored the surface discharge characteristics on the structure of three-layered laminated solid insulators to elevate the flashover voltage. A laminated solid insulator was inserted after the quasi-uniform electric field was formed in the test chamber. Dry air was then injected to set the internal pressure to 1 ~ 6 atm, and the AC voltage was applied. When identical solid insulators were stacked, the surface discharge characteristics were similar to those of a single solid insulator. On the other hand, the flashover voltage rose when the middle part was thicker and had lower permittivity than the top and bottom parts in the laminated solid insulator. Based on experimental results, when stacking a solid insulator in three layers, the middle part of the solid insulator should be at least four times as thick as the top and bottom parts and have lower permittivity than the others. In addition, the flashover voltage increased with increasing gas pressure on the surface of the laminated solid insulator due to the gas effect. This study may allow insulation design engineers to have useful information when using dry air for the insulation gas where the surface discharge can occur.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.302-307
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• 2006

The formation and processing of organic insulators on the device performance have been studied in the fabrication of organic thin film transistors (OTFTs). The series of polyvinyls, poly-4-vinyl phenol(PVP) and polyvinyltoluene (PVT), were used as solutes and propylene glycol monomethyl ether acetate(PGMEA) as a solvent in the formation of organic insulators. The cross-linking of organic insulators was also attempted by adding the thermosetting material, poly (melamine-co-formaldehyde) as a hardener in the compound. The electrical characteristics measured in the metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structures showed that insulating properties of PVP layers were generally superior to those of PVT layers. Among the layers of PVP series: PVP(10 wt%) copolymer, 5 wt% cross-linked PVP(10 wt%), PVP(20 wt%) copolymer, 5 wt% cross-linked PVP(20 wt%) and 10 wt% cross-linked PVP(20 wt%), the 10 wt% cross-linked PVP(20 wt%) layer showed the lowest leakage current characteristics. Finally, inverted staggered OTFTs using the PVP(20 wt%) copolymer, 5 wt% cross-linked PVP(20 wt%) and 10 wt% cross-linked PVP(20 wt%) as gate insulators were fabricated on the polyether sulphone (PES) substrates. In our experiments, we could obtain the maximum field effect mobility of 0.31 $cm^2/Vs$ in the device from 5 wt% cross-linked PVP(20 wt%) and the highest on/off current ratio of $1.92{\times}10^5$ in the device from 10 wt% cross-linked PVP(20 wt%).

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.138-144
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• 2005

In order to understand the effect of the mountain fire on the polymeric insulator for transmission lines, the author observed the deformation of the sheds of the polymeric insulators and the change of the discs of the porcelain insulators under fire, and investigated the electrical and mechanical characteristics of the insulators after the ignition test As the result the following conclusions were obtained. First, the porcelain insulator was degraded in electrical characteristics when the insulator was subjected to the fire for approximately 5 minutes; whereas, the polymeric insulator was not degraded though there were some damage on its sheds. Second, after 20 minutes exposure to the fire, the polymeric insulator lost a lot of parts of sheds, but the electrical characteristics was lowered by around $20(\%)$, but the porcelain insulators were electrically degraded by more than $80(\%)$.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.27 no.6
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• pp.642-650
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• 2016

One of the most feasible solution for reducing the excessive energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission is usage of more efficient fuel such as hydrogen. As is well known, there are three viable technologies for storing hydrogen fuel: compressed gas, metal hydride absorption, and cryogenic liquid. In these technologies, the storage for liquid hydrogen has better energy density by weight than other storage methods. However, the cryogenic liquid storage has a significant disadvantage of boiling losses. That is, high performance of thermal insulation systems must be studied for reducing the boiling losses. This paper presents an experimental study on the effective thermal conductivities of the composite layered insulation with aerogel blankets($Cryogel^{(R)}$ Z and $Pyrogel^{(R)}$ XT-E) and Multi-layer insulation(MLI). The aerogel blankets are known as high porous materials and the good insulators within a soft vacuum range($10^{-3}{\sim}1$ Torr). Also, MLI is known as the best insulator within a high vacuum range(<$10^{-6}{\sim}10^{-3}$ Torr). A vertical axial cryogenic experimental apparatus was designed to investigate the thermal performance of the composite layered insulators under cryogenic conditions as well as consist of a cold mass tank, a heat absorber, annular vacuum space, and an insulators space. The composite insulators were laminated in the insulator space that height was 50 mm. In this study, the effective thermal conductivities of the materials were evaluated by measuring boil-off rate of liquid nitrogen and liquid argon in the cold mass tank.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.87-94
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• 2002

As a section insulator dividing the electric railroad catenaries with different phases, the AC/DC section insulator which divides AC and DC railroad catenary have the complex structure, and suffer irregular abrasion on the surface or insulator rods when it is installed at the underground railroad. This paper intended as an investigation of the irregular abrasion of section insulators, provides the field measurements of abrasion level along insulator length and the abrasion patterns. The height variation of insulator parts and the balding length of insulators against pantograph's contact force are analysed experimentally, and the irregular abrasion mechanism is clarified with the help of theoretical analysis on the interaction between pantographs and section insulators. On the basis of experimental and theoretical analysis, the countermeasures to reduce the irregular abrasion are provided too.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.36-41
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• 2003

This paper presents the results of power spectra using the fundamental and low frequency harmonic components of leakage current waveform to study aging on contaminated EPDM insulator(was serviced during 1997-2001, region Pohang, korea) under salt fog conditions. Experiments have been conducted in the chamber salt fog and at the 16KVrms. The salt contents adjusted as 0g,25g,50g and 75g per liter of deionized water. The onset of dry-band arcing on polymer insulators could be determined by signal processing the low frequency harmonics components. A correlation has been found between the fundamental and low harmonic components of power spectra on leakage current. Where aging could be associated with an increase in the level of both the fundamental and low frequency harmonics components of leakage current. Surface aging for contaminated EPDM insulators occurred when the fundamental component of leakage current was greater then some level On the other hand, when the polymer insulator approached failure, the fundamental component of leakage current reached relatively high values and low frequency harmonics components of the leakage current trended to decrease. The results suggest that both the fundamental and low frequency harmonics of leakage current can be used as a tool to determine both the beginning of aging and before flashover, end of life EPBM insulator in salt fog.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 1999.07d
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• pp.1621-1623
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• 1999

Recently, high voltage outdoor ploymer insulators have been widely used commercially owing to their excellent electrical and mechanical properties, superior comtamination flashover performance, light weight, easy installation or handing, no maintenance during service, competitive price and so on. compared to porcelaain and glass insulators. For instance, silicone rubber(SR) for polymeric insulators specially has much superior insulating and anti-pollution performance due to its specific hydrophobicity even in severe contaminated environments. We have investigated surface discharge current characteristics of silicone rubbers(SR) for HV outdoor composite insulation specimen under accelerated aging codition using a computer measuring system. The relations of average leakage current and surface discharge current repetition rates and discharge current amplitude, the distribution of discharge current amplitude were studied to investigate electrical conduction of silicone rubber surface with the salt fog condition.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.527-555
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• 2018

High-temperature thermal insulation materials challenge extensive oxide candidates such as porus $SiO_2$, $Al_2O_3$, yttria-stabilized zirconia, and mullite, due to the needs of good mechanical, thermal, and chemical reliabilities at high temperatures simultaneously. Recently, porous rare earth (RE) silicates have been revealed to be excellent thermal insulators in harsh environments. These materials display attractive properties, including high porosity, moderately high compressive strength, low processing shrinkage (near-net-shaping), and very low thermal conductivity. The current critical challenge is to balance the excellent thermal insulation property (extremely high porosity) with their good mechanical properties, especially at high temperatures. Herein, we review the recent developments in processing techniques to achieve extremely high porosity and multiscale strengthening strategy, including solid solution strengthening and fiber reinforcement methods, for enhancing the mechanical properties of porous RE silicate ceramics. Highly porous RE silicates are highlighted as emerging high-temperature thermal insulators for extreme environments.