Effect of Artificial Aging on Silicone Rubber Polymeric Insulators Performance at Various Environmental Conditions

Silicone rubber polymeric insulators are one type of insulator that has great hydrophobicity compared to conventional insulators, but its damage by environmental conditions like UV irradation, pollution and humidity of air. Natural aging takes a long time, so in this study artificial aging will be carried out to accelerate natural aging to know its condition and performance after that. One of artificial aging are pollution exposure, NSDD is value of pollution exposure in artificial aging which cover variation of natural pollution. There are several parameters would be observed like dielectric characteristics (resistance, leakage current characteristics and flashover voltage), hydrophobicity, micro physical (material composition and chemical bonds) in insulators, artificial aging and this test follows IEC, ISO, ANSI and STRI standards, this research was conducted at several laboratory on ITB. The results stated if artificial aging and variations of NSDD value affect the condition and performance of insulator in various environmental conditions. Insulators with artificial aging have a higher number of pollutants and higher exposure to UV radiation.