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 Volume 40, Number 1, 1999 3

Polymer Outdoor Insulators

Michael G. DANIKAS
Democritus University of Thrace
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Electric Energy Systems Laboratory
67100 Xanthi, GREECE

Abstract: Although polymeric insulators seem to be an alternative to more traditional materials such as
porcelain or glass, their long term electrical and mechanical performance cannot be predicted accurately
and there are not as yet tests predicting their long term behavior. A basic reason for this is that the aging
process, which affects the long-term performance, is not fully understood.

1. Introduction have a synergistic effect on the polymeric

insulator aging and on its overall
During the past 25 years polymeric performance. Aging leads to a gradual loss of
materials have emerged as a viable option to electrical and mechanical strength of the
porcelain and/or glass for outdoor insulation. insulator and to material deterioration.
Polymers are in certain aspects preferable to Polymers unlike ceramic and glass, are
porcelain and/or glass because of their organic materials that can degrade or age
lightweight, better resistance to vandalism under these stresses. Therefore the subject of
and superior contamination performance. the long-term performance is a difficult and a
Recent reports [1] show that several thousand demanding one. This difficulty is exacerbated
polymeric insulators are currently in use by the fact that the term "polymer" comprises
worldwide. Problems have been recorded an entire variety of materials different in their
with the first generation of polymeric basic properties. Heavily filled alicyclic
insulators but recently an EPRI survey has epoxies, for example, suffering loss of
reported that 78% of the utilities were surface properties, PTFE suffering
satisfied with the performance of polymeric considerably less loss of surface properties
insulators, whereas only 4% reported poor and silicone rubber, a known water repellant,
behavior [1]. This indicates that polymeric come all under the name "polymers".
insulators may seriously compete with the The problem of life determination is
more traditional materials (porcelain and highly complicated. Regarding polymer
glass) in the future. insulators, life determination based on service
One of the most important topics of experience is facing two problems, namely,
discussion on polymeric insulators is their that polymer insulators are not in service for
long-term performance. Reservations have more than 25 years, and that, because of the
been voiced in the past regarding the use of continuing development of technology,
polymeric insulators, given their organic insulators exposed for some years in service
nature [2]. Outdoor insulation is subjected to are different from the newer products.
a variety of stresses simultaneously, e.g. Consequently, it is of great importance to
electrical, thermal, mechanical, UV-radiation develop accelerated tests that provide results
etc. The aforementioned stresses are applied in a relatively short time frame. The
not sequentially but simultaneously. They requirement is to have accelerated tests that
4 ACTA ELECTROTEHNICA NAPOCENSIS

provide results consistent with field end fittings (or caps) provides the mechanical
experience. This can only be achieved if the strength to the insulator. The surrounding
failure mechanisms in the test are similar to polymer weathershed consisting of the sheath
those experienced in service. and skirts provides the electrical strength
It is the purpose of this paper to look at under all conditions (dry, wet, contaminated).
the problem areas of polymeric insulators, to The fibber glass rod is made up of electrical
review the work done on polymeric insulator grade glass fibbers bonded with either epoxy
aging and to comment on proposed or polyester resin. Of the two resins, epoxy
laboratory aging methods, to try to see if resin bonded fibber glass rods have higher
there is a relation between laboratory results mechanical strength, although there are
and service data, and to indicate areas insulators with the polyester resin bonded
needing more work and further clarification. rods that are operating successfully. The rods
can be cast or pultruded. The rod is attached
2. Problem Areas of Polymeric Insulators to the aluminium or malleable iron end
fittings by means of a crimp, wedge or glue.
Figure 1 shows a typical polymeric The crimped fitting seems to provide the best
insulator with its constituent parts. The method of attachment. The fibber glass rod
central fibber glass rod attached to two metal has to be protected from moisture under all
conditions. This is due to the fact that the
organic resin easily carbonizes in the
combined presence of electric stress and
moisture, rendering thus the insulator useless.
The protection is provided by the
weathershed material. Many groups of
polymers have been tried as weathershed
materials but only a few were found to
perform satisfactorily. These are silicone
rubbers and ethylene propylene rubbers.
Cycloaliphatic epoxies have been used
successfully in the past under certain
conditions. Ethyl vinyl acetate is being used
on certain types of cable terminations.
As problem areas can be regarded the
following: (a) poor bonding between the
fibber reinforced (FRP) rod and the housing
material, (b) the weathershed material itself,
which, because of improper selection of
ingredients and/or manufacturing, may be
prone to erosion and tracking, and (c) an
inadequate attachment of the FRP rod to the
end fitting(s). Case (c) causes the mechanical
failure of the insulator whereas (a) and (b) are
causes of electrical failure. Mechanical aging
or loss of mechanical strength occurs due to
the fact that the fibber glass rod of the
insulator is carrying a load (conductor) for
the entire life. The glass fibbers elongate and
bonding between fibbers may deteriorate
under the load. Mechanical failure results in
Fig. 1. Typical polymeric insulator with its
constituent parts (after [50]).
the loss of ability to hold the conductor,
 Volume 40, Number 1, 1999 5

which is the primary function of an insulator. polymer [6]. The assumption that acids
Electrical aging of the weathershed material originate from internal partial discharges [10]
occurs due to leakage current dry band arcing seems to be contradicted by later results [11].
in the presence of moisture and Brittle fracture occurs because of stress
contamination. Uncontrolled dry band arcing corrosion of the glass fibbers. This entails
leads to tracking (carbonization) and/or loss of mechanical strength with time,
erosion. Tracking results in the formation of a sometimes gradual and sometimes
conducting path on the surface leading to a catastrophic [3].
flashover. Erosion, on the other hand, is a Brittle fractures as well as the
loss of material but is not as serious as mechanical behavior of polymeric insulators
tracking. It can, however, under uncontrolled have been studied in the laboratory. In [5] the
conditions, lead to exposure of the fibber authors proposed a brittle fracture test by
glass rod to the environment and therefore simultaneously stressing a FRP rod
failure in a short time interval thereafter. mechanically and chemically, the latter being
an attack by an aqueous nitric acid. This 96-
3. Mechanical Aging hour test is a discriminatory test and not
necessarily a test predicting the long-term
The mechanical performance of a performance of a polymeric insulator. The
polymeric insulator depends on the authors of [5] reported good reproducibility
characteristics of its FRP rod and its metal of results and moreover, a similarity between
fittings. The FRP rod is the component, the failures encountered in the laboratory and
which will withstand the mechanical loads. those happening in practice.
The characteristics of the FRP rod and its The mechanical behavior of a polymeric
mechanical quality are closely related to the insulator depends also on the fittings. The
intrinsic properties of its basic constituent fitting has to design in a way as to avoid local
materials (types of glass fibber and matrix stresses and to ensure uniform distribution of
resin) [3]. The fitting, which is the element the mechanical load between the fiber [3].
transmitting the mechanical stress to the FRP Reactive metals have to be avoided since
rod, is the other crucial component contamination can spread over the critical
determining the mechanical behaviour of the region of the contact between the fitting and
polymeric insulator. the FRP rod.
Early service data indicated that there Another approach to mechanical aging
were several mechanical failures of was formulated in [12,13]. Rupture tests were
polymeric insulators after only a short time. It performed with various insulators and their
was thought that these failures were due to time-to-failure was recorded. A dependence
localized damage, electrical or chemical in of the rupture load on temperature was
nature, or to severe conditions of dynamic noticed. No single load value could describe
mechanical loading [3,4]. Subsequent the characteristics of a polymeric insulator,
research [5,6] has established that these the mechanical behaviour being dependent
failures, known as "brittle fractures", are not only on the quality of the FRP rod but
characterized by a transverse fracture to the also on the type of the end fittings (it was
axis of the rod and occur near the fittings. noted that the compression fittings were the
This fracture pattern could be simulated with best suited for a reliable long term
a mechanical stressing of the rod together performance). Furthermore, it was also noted
with an attack by a corrosive medium [7 - 9]. that a polymeric insulator should be selected
As to the origin of such a corrosive on both the average daily load and the
medium, it is more likely that it comes from extraordinary load. In yet another work [14],
the outside either through the polymeric the response of polymeric insulators to
weathershed or through imperfections in the dynamic mechanical loads was investigated.
adhesion between the metal fitting and the Reference [14] constitutes an important
6 ACTA ELECTROTEHNICA NAPOCENSIS

comparative study between static, pulsed being missing.

tension and tension-flexion loads. The static Present standards, as the specification
loads producing generally a failure time of IEC 1109 [17], are primarily concerned with
about 100 hours can be from 22% up to 75% static mechanical tests, thus ignoring other
higher than the dynamic loads, which ambient influences. Such specifications may
produced failure in the same time. This fact well differentiate between "good" and "bad"
emphasizes the importance of dynamic loads insulators, but they cannot say much about
and their role in determining the long-term the long-term behaviour of a polymeric
behaviour of polymeric insulators. The insulator. They are good for comparative
significance of the dynamic mechanical loads purposes but with little predictive power.
was also demonstrated in [15]. Finally, the problem of the relation of
It is advisable that with regard to laboratory tests (e.g. as described in [5]) to
mechanical specifications, data should be the service experience has to be further
provided on the short time strength (STS), explored since there were reports which
which is defined as the average one minute indicated that breakages in the laboratory,
lifetime at 23°C of complete polymeric using a tensile load and nitric acid, looked
insulators including fibber glass rod and different from fractures in service [18,19].
hardware. The statistical limits of the STS
should also be provided. Life diagrams of 4. Electrical Aging
complete insulators should include the end
points (i.e. STS at 25 or more years of life) at 4. 1 Field Experience and Natural Aging
higher temperatures (i.e. at 55°C) and also
failure points derived from tests of one year At the first stages of polymer insulator
duration [12-16]. usage, the polymeric materials were subjected
It is generally believed that the polymeric to extensive deterioration resulting from
insulators have enough strength to withstand hydrolysis and UV attack. The materials,
the stresses encountered in service although which had such problems, were certain types
reference [16] cautions as to direct strength of epoxies and ethylene propylene rubbers.
interchangeability between polymeric and Room temperature vulcanized (RTV) silicone
porcelain insulators. Equivalence in strength rubber, used as weathersheds in earlier
can be considered only if the life distribution polymer insulators suffered from poor tear
of the polymer insulator intercepts the strength. However, present day materials are
porcelain insulator life at times greater than much improved and do not suffer like their
40 years, given that porcelain and glass are predecessors. All polymers are inherently low
considered to have a strength that is invariant surface energy materials and therefore
with time. Although much has already been hydrophobic initially. This water repellant
achieved in the study of the long-term property ensures that in the initial stages of
performance of polymeric insulators, it field exposure, the leakage current will be
should also be noted that no standardized test low. The ability, however, to maintain a low
exists as yet regarding the influence of acid level leakage current is very much dependent
on their mechanical behaviour. Depending on on the polymer type and formulation. It is not
the environmental conditions, a variety of surprising that there are wide variations in the
acids of different concentrations may be electrical aging and insulator characteristics
produced. Designing a standardized test thus between various polymer families but also
of the acid influence on the mechanical within the same polymer family depending
performance of polymeric insulators is not a on the formulation. Thus a judgement cannot
simple matter. Moreover, as the above be made on the insulator performance based
mentioned publications note, in such a test on material family alone. The ability of the
static as well as dynamic loads should be silicone rubber surface to recover its
taken into account. Such a test is for the time hydrophobicity quickly, despite being
 Volume 40, Number 1, 1999 7

contaminated, had led many to believe that insulators is lower than that of EPDM
the material would not age much during the insulators subjected to the same natural
expected life of the insulator. But this was aging, (f) a reduction of the contact angle in
proven not to be true. By determining the silicone rubber insulators seems to be due to
permanent changes that are not time an increase of the surface roughness and to an
dependent like hydrophobicity, it was shown increase of the surface polarization due to
that the silicone rubber ages, and that surface hydroxyl presence, which in turn decreases
hydrophobicity is not a good indicator of the surface hydrophobicity, and (g) the
aging. development of leakage currents and of
Service experience accumulated through surface degradation is different for various
several years in different countries [3,4] polymers, showing clearly the importance of
showed that polymeric materials (teflon, the manufacturing process for the housing
EPM, EPDM, silicone rubber, cycloaliphatic materials and at the same time that the
resin) were prone to surface erosion when presently used accelerated aging tests are not
thick pollution layers were formed. Silicone suitable since they tend to show that the
rubber showed a certain advantage because of degradation of polymers is more a function of
its water repellency in comparison to the their inorganic filler. The above briefly
other housing materials, it proved, however, described work by the Chalmers University
to be sensitive to thick pollution layer of Technology group is remarkable in that it
exposure [4]. uses a variety of presently available
EPM and EPDM weathersheds suffered techniques in order to monitor the behaviour
from chalking and crazing and in some cases of polymeric insulators under service
from a loss of bonding at the junction of two conditions. The period of testing extends over
consecutive shed [13]. Such phenomena were 10 years, which is unique among the research
not observed in silicone rubber insulators, groups studying the subject of polymeric
deformation of the RTV silicone rubber insulators. As criticism, one may argue that
weathersheds was observed instead, together mechanical stressing is not included in their
with a reduction of its hardness. testing arrangement, an important parameter
Detailed natural aging research was in service aging.
reported by the high voltage group of
Chalmers University of Technology, where 4. 2 Laboratory Aging
the aging of polymeric insulators is not only
investigated by post-mortem sophisticated Service experience and long term
surface analysis techniques [20 - 24] but also experiments were reported and commented
by on-line leakage current measurements [25 upon in the previous section. It was seen that
- 27]. The above mentioned group reached environmental stresses together with
some important conclusions : (a) EPDM and electrical and mechanical stresses affect the
silicone rubber perform better than glass or behaviour of polymeric outdoor insulation.
porcelain, (b) the aging of silicone rubber Modes of failure include oxidation,
results in the formation of a low molecular hydrolytic attack, dry-band arcing, erosion
silicone layer on the insulator surface which and tracking among others. Attempts have
preserves the good electrical insulating been made to try to simulate real aging
properties of the aged silicone rubber conditions in the laboratory and then to relate
insulator, (c) the EPDM insulators tend to the laboratory results to the service data.
lose their hydrophobicity by weathering after Since laboratory testing is concerned with
some years of exposure, (d) for the RTV both investigating components and materials,
silicone elastomer coating the contact angle it was thought fitting to present a review of
was lower than that measured on the RTV the work done in those fields in two separate
silicone rubber housing, (e) the leakage sections.
current activity for the aged silicone rubber
8 ACTA ELECTROTEHNICA NAPOCENSIS

4. 3 Component Tests If the insulator surface is dry for a few hours,

the material is known to recover all or most
4. 3. a. Surface Tracking and Erosion of its initial hydrophobicity. The time
Testing required for this reversal is also material and
formulation dependent.
This group of tests is destined for the
study of insulators, not just materials. Well- 5. Future Research
defined tests for seacoast pollution and for
industrial pollution are sought [28]. However, From the above, it is evident that despite
no clear definition of industrial pollution the great progress made in the field of
exists, and data from outdoor testing have outdoor polymeric insulation, both in the
shown that no major difference between domain of aging tests and in the domain of
marine and industrial pollution exists when diagnostic techniques, a lot has to be still
shapes and creepages are to be selected [2]. accomplished. No mechanical standardized
Tests mentioned here are mostly salt-fog test exists as yet taking into account dynamic
tests. loads. Thus the effect of aeolian vibrations on
No test to this day exists, which the mechanical strength of polymeric
encompasses all factors contributing to the insulators cannot be accounted for as yet.
eventual electrical failure of polymeric Although there is now a widespread
insulators. Silicone rubber insulators, for agreement among the experts as to the causes
example, are sensitive to high salinities and of the "brittle fracture", there are still
continuous testing. Methods, which have mechanical failures in service which cannot
been successful in evaluating porcelain be explained by the aforementioned effect
insulators, are not efficient when it comes to [18,19].
polymeric insulators. Moreover, the designer New accelerated tests should not be a
of an aging test should bear in mind the very function of the inorganic filler contained in
nature of polymers, their technology and the polymer. Moreover, such tests should
manufacturing processes. Individual simulate as many as possible simultaneous
members of the same family (e.g. silicone stresses appearing in service and take into
rubber) may differ from each other, account that leakage currents and surface
depending on their particular processing resistance of the insulators depend on the
parameters. conditions under which the surfaces are aged
as well as on the interplay between the
4. 3. b. Material tests material species in the surface layer and the
humidity [35]. The designers of new
It has been observed that silicone based accelerated tests should also bear in mind the
polymers, due to their low surface energy, are peculiarities of new generations of materials,
able to maintain a hydrophobic surface for where continuous testing results in data,
longer periods of time when compared to which does not bear any relation to practice
other classes of polymers, and hence maintain [37,38].
leakage currents to harmless levels. An Furthermore, existing standards [17],
extended period of dry band arcing, however, thought to be aging tests, are currently under
is known to convert the hydrophobic surface close scrutiny since they are considered to be
of all polymers to a hydrophilic surface. At pure pollution tests instead [39]. A further
such times, it is important that the material elaboration regarding salinity level reduction
has sufficient inorganic filler, such as and a combination of different salinity levels
alumina trihydrate, to withstand the heat of or implementation of short recovery pauses
dry band arcing without deterioration. If not, seems to be needed.
the material will either track or erode,
resulting in a possible failure of the insulator.
 Volume 40, Number 1, 1999 9

6. Conclusions [7] Infoffen,E.; Spannungsrissbildung bzw.

Spannungsrisskorrosion bei den einzelnen GF-
The aging of polymeric insulators for UP-Komponenten in der Praxis, im Labor, in
outdoor applications is of primary concern to der Prüfmethode, Gegenmassnahmen.
Berichtsband der AVK Tegung, Bericht Nr. 4,
manufacturers and to utilities. Polymers are
Freudenstadt 1980.
different from porcelain and glass and [8] Friedrich,K.; Rissausbreitung und Bruch von
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