high humidity and strong sunshine radiation environment
the aging state of island composite insulators has attracted more attention. It is very important to evaluate the aging characteristics of composite insulator sheds for ascertaining the aging state of silicone rubber. In this paper
39 samples with different voltage levels
service life and manufacturers were selected. The mechanical properties of insulator sheds were measured by electronic universal testing machine
and the aging characteristics and change of insulator sheds were analyzed. The results show that the tensile strength and breaking elongation of sheds at different parts of insulator are relatively consistent
which does not affect the judgment to insulator properties. There is an obvious boundary between the mechanical properties of broken and unbroken insulators
which is called the broken threshold. The tensile strength threshold of broken insulator sheds is 4.4 MPa
and the breaking elongation threshold of broken insulator sheds is 1.1. Breakage occurs when the mechanical properties of sheds are lower than the broken threshold. With the prolongation of service life
the proportion of broken insulators will increase. In the aging process of composite insulator
with the decrease of breaking elongation
the tensile strength negligibly changes at first
then presents a linear decline trend with breaking elongation
and insulator sheds are likely to be broken in the descending stage.