Simulation and Experimental Research on Laser-Induced Damage of Porcelain Insulators

One of the main threats to the safety of power systems is the pollution flashover of external insulation of transmission and transformation equipment. The contamination on the surface of porcelain insulators can be effectively removed by laser cleaning, but the substrate of insulators may also be damaged if the cleaning parameters are not reasonable. The characteristics of laser-induced damage of porcelain insulators were investigated in this article via theoretical analysis, simulation, and experiments. The laser-induced damage model of the porcelain insulator was established, and the numerical analysis of the temperature and stress distribution characteristics was performed. The characteristics of laser-induced damage were obtained through simulation and experiments. The results indicate that if the laser power is 80 W, the scanning speed is 7 m/s, and the absorptivity is 80%, the glaze layer will not suffer from temperature damage but stress damage. In the fixed-point irradiation damage experiment, when the laser power reached 60 W, there was a molten pit on the surface of the glaze layer. The diameter of the molten pit increased with increasing laser power, pulse number, and irradiation time. Under laser irradiation, the laser-induced damage threshold of high-strength porcelain insulators is 130 W, while the laser-induced damage threshold of the common porcelain piece is 64 W.