Scope of the project

The proposed project aims in the use of the existing expertise and facilities of the participating organizations for: (a) the investigation of the performance of polymer based outdoor insulators used in high voltage applications and how this is influenced by the climatic conditions of Greece and more general, of the Mediterranean countries and (b) the development of a remote and real time diagnostic technique for the evaluation of the functionality of the insulators. For the realization of these targets, the following innovative steps will be implemented:
(a)    The physical/chemical parameters affecting the functionality of the insulators as well as the influence of various environmental stresses on the degradation and the ageing of their performance will be determined by a combined investigation including artificial/field ageing and basic structural, morphological, electrical and hydrophobic characterization. Then, the most characteristic parameters for the evaluation of the performance of the insulator will be chosen.
(b)    The diagnostic capabilities of various optical techniques like Spectral Imaging, Laser Induced Fluorescence and Laser Induced breakdown Spectroscopy will be examined regarding the recognition of the condition and functionality of the insulators. Then, the most suitable diagnostic technique for recognizing the operational state of the insulator will be chosen.
(c)    The appropriate model correlating the results from the diagnostic technique chosen within step (b) with the characteristic parameters chosen within step (a) will be developed. Then, a prototype diagnostic setup, including suitable hardware and software, will be developed, tested and optimized for the remote and real time evaluation of the functionality of the insulators. In parallel, following the results of the previous steps, new polymeric materials will be designed suitable for polymeric outdoor insulators.
The prototype diagnostic setup will be tested and evaluated using field characterization of polymeric insulators.