Simulation and experimental research on laser cleaning of glass insulators

Abstract

The pollution flashover of glass insulators can be effectively mitigated through regular or irregular cleaning. However, the existing cleaning methods are difficult to popularize on a large scale due to labour intensive, high cost or low safety. The effectiveness and safety of laser cleaning on glass insulators has been analyzed in this paper. A number of artificial contaminated and clean glass insulators are tested. By measuring the equivalent salt deposit density (ESDD) and the non-soluble deposit density (NSDD) before and after cleaning, laser cleaning can reduce both of them to different degrees. The main factors affecting the maximum temperature of the contamination layer include the class of pollution, laser power and scanning velocity during laser cleaning. When addressing pollution levels above class b, by employing a laser scanning velocity of 8 m/s and adjusting the laser power within the range of 80–200 W, the pollution class after laser cleaning reduces effectively to class b or lower. To verify the safety of laser cleaning, simulations and experimental analyses are carried out. The result demonstrates that sufficient safety can be satisfied when laser cleaning is applied to clean glass insulators.