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think only of brittle fracture. However, recent evidence suggests that the incidence of
classical brittle fracture has been significantly reduced through better materials and
product designs. Still, other factors such as the inability of the specified insulator to
cope with dynamic line stresses or improper molding of the housing over the core rod
can also result in fracture-type failures. The features of the failed insulator in this case
This past INMR article was provided by Dr. Bernhard Lutz, Prof. GUAN Zhicheng Guan
Shenzhen and by Dr. ZHANG Fuzeng of the China Southern Power Grid. It deals with
the case of a 500 kV AC composite insulator that fractured yet showed none of the
characteristics associated with brittle fracture. One of the objectives behind their
forensic analysis was to provide test data to allow comparison with any similarly
fractured insulators appearing on other networks. Another goal was encourage both
manufacturers and power grid operators to focus more on the quality of the critical
Introduction
By comparison with porcelain or glass, there is still only relatively limited service
experience with composite insulators operating at very high voltages. In this regard,
of the root causes and contributing mechanisms. This is the best way to ensure that
adjust to this information from the field. The fracture failure in question took place in
Guizhou Province of China – an area of light pollution severity as defined in IEC 60815.
Previous inspection of the line using of an IR camera (conducted only some two months
before the incident) had identified a minor ‘hot’ spot along this unit located from 1.5 to
2 m from the live end fitting. However, apart from the slightly elevated temperature
Figure 1: Fracture location – high voltage portion (top), opposite side (bottom).
The insulator, with length of 5.315 m and core and sheath diameters of 30 mm and
line drop since the parallel insulator did not fail nor show any evidence of degradation.
The point of fracture was located 300 mm from the live end fitting and the core
exhibited regions of darker color. Especially striking was the fact that there were no
classic signs of brittle fracture (e.g. smooth planar fracture surface) and that the
degraded core showed a degree of porosity. This indicated that an entirely different
ageing mechanism was likely involved in this particular failure. In total, 25 punctures of
the sheath occurred along a 1.1 m portion from the high voltage end fitting. About half
of these were filled by eroded, porous silicone rubber (SIR) material that dropped off
easily after dabbing with a needle. The punctures were the result of an erosion
Before dismantling and cutting open the fractured insulator for analysis, both IR and UV
imaging were performed under an AC test voltage of 550 kV/= 318 kV applied to the
broken end without grading rings. After 5 minutes, areas with higher surface
the broken end (Fig. 3 left). At this position, the insulator also exhibited sheath
punctures from which corona activity was clearly detectable (Fig. 3 right).
Figure 2: Example of internally initiated sheath punctures before (left) and after
dabbing by a needle.
These findings confirm the presence of conductive interfacial defects having a length of
almost one meter that shifted the high voltage potential toward the ground end.
Moreover, the electric field strength was high enough to initiate corona discharges at
sheath punctures located far from the HV side fitting. The presence of these conductive
puncture points using a multimeter. Resistivity values obtained fell within a range of
1 MΩ to 120 MΩ, the lower range measured at shorter distances between the
punctures.
Surface Pollution & Hydrophobicity
The pollution on the surface of both the fractured and the undamaged parallel insulator
of the double string were determined by ESDD and NSDD measurements performed
according to IEC 60815-1 (i.e. upper and bottom surfaces of two sheds at three
Figure 3: Temperature distribution (left) and corona sources (right) along the fractured
AC test voltage.
namely near the HV fitting, in the middle and near the ground end). It was found that
ESDD and NSDD values on the bottom shed surface near the failed insulator’s live end
were some 5 times higher than on the undamaged parallel insulator. Differences in
degree of pollution at the middle and ground end portions of the two insulators were
significantly less.
The explanation for this, given two identical insulators installed in close proximity to
one another, could be the enhanced electric field strength on the failed unit due to
conductive internal defects located near the fracture point. In environments with little
in HC values on the upper shed surface at the HV side of both the fractured and the
parallel insulator. However, the failed insulator’s bottom shed surface was found to be
almost completely hydrophilic (HC 6) – likely the result of the high pollution at this
position.
Figure 4: Sheath puncture (left) and degraded interface area around LV side of
puncture (right).
Removal of Sheath
Removing the SIR sheath after cutting was fairly easy since almost no adhesion
remained between the sheath and the core rod. Nevertheless, some residue of core
material was stuck to the concave sheath surface, indicating that the mechanical
strength of the FRP core material (i.e. of the microscopic interfaces between the glass
concave SIR sheath and the core. Furthermore, some regions of the core’s surface
exhibited the same porosity and similar dark color as the fracture point and these spots
were rather conductive (R < 100Ω). Similar degradation of the interface could also be
found when dismantling more punctured portions of the insulator. Since conductive
interfacial defects can trigger sheath cracks and punctures, those observed along the
portion of 1.1 m from the HV end were probably initiated by a growing internal track.
Removal of the SIR sheath at non-punctured portions of the insulator revealed further
regions with weak adhesion (see Fig. 5). However, this time there were no blackened
and colored spots, nor residues of the core material on the concave sheath surface. This
indicated that it was the macroscopic sheath-core interface that was weak rather than
Figure 5: Areas of weak adhesion between sheath and core. 3.9 m from fracture point
Two standardized tests were carried out on the core material, i.e. the dye penetration
Three degraded as well as three non-degraded core material samples were cut from
different parts of the fractured insulator. The degraded material was obtained from a
sheath puncture area some 800 mm from the point of fracture while the non-
degraded material was cut from the insulator’s ground end. Not surprisingly, the
degraded core samples did not pass the dye penetration test. Indeed, after only 3
minutes the dye had reached the upper surface (see Fig. 6), penetrating rapidly
through capillaries within the darkened portion of the core due to degradation of
Figure 6: Degraded core material 3 min after start of dye penetration test.
All non-degraded core samples passed the test such that no dye was visible on their
surface after allowing 4 hours for possible penetration to occur. Failure of the
degraded core material in the dye penetration test confirmed the presence of
A total of 10 samples were cut from the failed insulator. The SIR sheath of some
samples had been removed for the tests in order to compare the results with
samples with the sheath still attached. The location of the cutting was chosen
randomly in the middle and ground end portions of the failed insulator. Results after
boiling in water for 100 h according to IEC 62217 are presented in Table 2.
With and without sheath cut from different positions of the fractured insulator
Leakage current through samples with the SIR sheath exceeded 1 mA and these
therefore failed the test. By contrast, samples without the sheath had
leakage currents between 0.024 and 0.027 mA and therefore passed. These results
confirm the weak adhesion at the sheath-core interface that had already been
observed when removing the sheath and which played a critical role in the entire
degradation process.
Test samples made up from different parts of the core material were produced by
turning with a lathe or cutting with scalpels. These methods generated 1 mm thick
core disks as well as colored (degraded) and white (non-degraded) core material
The dark spots at the degraded core sample (see Fig. 7) indicate interfacial
degradation along the glass fibers but are not present along the non-degraded
service to core sections some distance (i.e. 850 mm) from the fracture point before
failure occurred. These dark spots could also be identified using SEM as areas with
higher erosion around glass fiber bundles (see Fig. 8). In the case of the degraded
core, the surface roughness and porosity of the glass fibers appeared higher than
on non-degraded material (see Fig. 9). Moreover, a large proportion of fibers in the
nondegraded core material remained embedded in the resin. These SEM results
confirm that the microscopic glass fiber-resin interfaces were severely degraded
and this progressively reduced the mechanical strength of the insulator core until
Figure 7: Degraded (left: 850 mm from fracture) and non-degraded (4.4 m from point
Figure 8: SEM image of degraded part of core cut from a position 850 mm from fracture
Figure 9: SEM image of degraded (left) and non-degraded (right) core material (view
incident, chemical analysis of the core material was performed using Fourier
An FTIR analysis of degraded (samples #2 and #3) and non-degraded core material
(sample #1) was performed. The spectral curves were then normalized to the same
1. The degraded core material exhibited a higher concentration of silicic acid Si(OH)4
resulted from glass corrosion and ion exchange processes at the microscopic glass
structure and require the presence of water. The latter mechanism is due to the
replacement of metal anions in the glass fibers (e.g. Na+) by previously dissociated
hydroxyl ions (OH-). Glass corrosion results from diffusion of water into the glass
white core material sample cut from live portion, #2: colored core material sample cut
from live portion, #3: colored core material sample cut from ground portion
2. The degraded core material also exhibited a higher concentration of nitric acid
(HNO3) as seen from decreased transmittance at 1385 cm-1. This likely resulted
from partial discharge (PD) activity in combination with absorbed moisture as well as
ozone generation.
3. The degraded core had a higher concentration of carbonyl (CO: 1627-1638 cm-1)
and hydroxyl groups (OH: 3440-3500 cm-1) as well, probably resulting from
Thermal AnalysisIt is important to note that all the above mechanisms require the
that became present within the core material as well as the core-sheath interface.
Thermal analysis of degraded and non-degraded sheath material was done using
thermogravimetry (TG).
Degraded material was scratched from inside a sheath puncture (sample #5) while
expected phases of weight loss (see Fig. 11) due to dehydration processes of the
Figure 11: TG curves for degraded sheath material scratched of a puncture (#5) and
A similar loss of weight, however, did not take place in the case of the degraded (i.e.
This confirmed the assumption that the sheath punctures were caused by thermal
excluded.
The water vapor permeation property of HTV silicone rubber material was also
investigated during the forensic analysis since water ingress played a major role in
terms of ageing of the core material. Newly manufactured HTV silicone rubber disks
the sheath of the fractured insulator. These samples were used as lids for glass cups
by gluing them on the aperture with a viscous impregnationgrease (see Fig. 12).
Figure 12: Permeation test set-up.
The glass cup contained a packet of drying agent in order to maintain constant
relative humidity below 3%. The RH and the temperature were monitored continually
during the experiment. The glass cups were placed in plastic boxes
almost constant RH gradient between the surroundings and inner volume of the glass
cups was thus established, causing continuous permeation of water vapor through the
HTV samples and along the glued contact surface, respectively. Using a second glass
cup, this time with a glass lid, it was determined that permeation rate along the
The amount of permeated water vapor Q(t) was determined regularly after starting
the test by measuring the weight of the drying agent in the cups. From Fig. 13, it
can be seen that the amount of permeated water Q(t) increased linearly over time at
different RH values and that the slope of the curves and thus the rate of permeation
dQ(t)/dt decreased with the relative air humidity. The rate of permeation
(P) which characterizes the water permeation behavior of the HTV silicone rubber
material.
Figure 13: Amount of water vapor Q(t) permeating through 1 mm thick HTV SIR disks
A P value of 1?10-7 g cm-1 s-1 cmHg-1 could be assigned to the HTV silicone rubber
material tested at relative humidity greater than 60%. Since this value exceeds the
permeation coefficient of glass fiber reinforced resin by six orders of magnitude, water
vapor permeates much faster through the HTV silicone rubber material examined
than through the fiber reinforced plastic (FRP). In the case of SIR materials with high
barrier against water vapor permeation. This may be particularly critical for any
Discussion of Results
The results of the analysis reveal that the fractured insulator exhibited weak sheath-
core adhesion and that subsequent degradation mechanisms were accelerated by the
presence of water. Both findings proved decisive in terms of explaining the initiation
Water can penetrate inside composite insulators either in the liquid or vapor state.
During rainy seasons, liquid water accumulating on insulator surfaces first enters
the SIR sheath through a diffusion process. However, due to the relatively slow
water diffusion process in FRP materials (compared to SIR), the amount of absorbed
liquid water is normally too small to initiate severe degradation of the core. Still, if
core materials and coupling agents are used that are prone to hydrolysis or if silicone
excluded.
Absorbed water can further accumulate within internal defects such as voids, cracks
and air gaps, thereby creating localized regions with higher electric conductivity and
dielectric constant. During humid seasons and in the presence of such defects,
water vapor permeation through the silicone rubber sheath will be more critical in
initiating the degradation processes than water absorption. Consequently, air filled
defects at the sheath-core interface or inside the core can become filled with water
As soon as the defects (particularly in regions of high electric field) have been wetted,
the degradation process will proceed according to the schematic shown in Fig. 14,
namely:
This process emphasizes the important role of the sheath-core interface when it
insulator studied in this analysis exhibited regions with weak sheath-core adhesion
from which sheath splitting and puncturing were triggered by water ingress. Indeed,
weak sheath-core interfaces has already been demonstrated with samples that
After sheath splitting and puncture, further ageing occurs due to exposure of the core
exchange and hydrolysis as well as by interfacial tracking can then proceed until the
Conclusions
chemical, thermal and standardized methods. The mechanical strength of the core
material was degraded by water induced ageing processes, i.e. ion exchange,
degradation mechanism.
The origin of the failed insulator’s degradation process is assumed to have been the
relatively weak adhesion detected between its sheath and core – making it especially
localized heating (hot spots) near wetted defects at the sheath-core interface. Once
sheath puncture occurred, further water induced ageing of the thus exposed core
The results of this investigation emphasize the importance of good adhesion between
the sheath and core of composite insulators when it comes to their long-term service
In order to address the ageing process identified above during routine online
with IR cameras during or after rainy and humid seasons. Insulators exhibiting any
hot spots and sheath punctures should then be replaced as soon as possible.