Abstract
Superhydrophobic surface has aroused much interest among researchers due to the low adhesion between water and a substrate surface. This study focuses on the influence of the low adhesion of superhydrophobic surface on flashover characteristics under wet conditions. The flashover experiments were conducted under two different wet conditions. One was placing a constant volume droplet on the silicone rubber. The other one was that silicone rubber was wetted by salt fog. It was found that the adhesion between water droplets and a superhydrophobic surface was very low because of the presence of air cushion. Accordingly, water droplets were easy to slide on a superhydrophobic surface under the effect of electric filed. The sliding of droplets could provide a longer insulation path before flashover occurred. Results showed that flashover voltage could be improved greatly on a superhydrophobic silicone rubber surface.
Highlights
Nowadays, silicone rubber has been widely used in outdoor high voltage equipments.[1,2,3] Compared with traditional insulation materials, such as porcelain and glass, one of the main advantages of silicone rubber is their hydrophobicity.[3,4] Different from hydrophilic materials, water droplets, instead of continuous water films, will appear on the insulators’ surface under wet conditions, which can inhibit leakage current and flashover.[4,5]it brings some new problems
As for the common silicone rubber surface, the water would accumulate and form a large droplet on the surface when a jet of water was applied on the sample [Fig. 2(a)]
Bouncing of water showed that the adhesion of superhydrophobic surface was much lower than the common surface’s
Summary
Silicone rubber has been widely used in outdoor high voltage equipments.[1,2,3] Compared with traditional insulation materials, such as porcelain and glass, one of the main advantages of silicone rubber is their hydrophobicity.[3,4] Different from hydrophilic materials, water droplets, instead of continuous water films, will appear on the insulators’ surface under wet conditions, which can inhibit leakage current and flashover.[4,5]. Because of the enhancement of electric field, corona discharges will occur at the triple junction of water, silicone rubber and air.[6,7] And corona discharges from water droplets can lead to ageing of silicone rubber, and hydrophobicity could be lost.[8,9] On the other hand, due to the effect of electrostatic force, droplets will be elongated and form filaments on the surface.[4,5,10,11] So some partial discharges and even flashover would still occur.[4,5,11,12,13]
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