IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, （IEEE功率输出,）.pdf

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER DELIVERY, VOL. 20, NO. 4, OCTOBER 2005 2657 Resistance to Brittle Fracture of Glass Reinforced Polymer Composites Used in Composite (Nonceramic) Insulators Lucas S. Kumosa, Maciej S. Kumosa, and Daniel L. Armentrout Abstract— In this paper, the most important results are pre- sented and discussed from a multiyear interdisciplinary study di- rected toward the identification of the most suitable glass/polymer composite systems with the highest resistance to brittle fracture for high voltage composite insulator applications. Several uni- directional glass/polymer composite systems, commonly used in composite insulators, based either on E-glass or ECR-glass fibers embedded in either polyester, epoxy, or vinyl ester resins have been investigated for their resistance to stress corrosion cracking in nitric acid. The most important factors (fiber and resin types, surface fiber exposure, polymer fracture toughness, moisture absorption, interfacial properties, sandblasting) affecting the resistance of the composites to brittle fracture have been identi- fied and thoroughly analyzed. It has been shown that the brittle fracture process of composite (nonceramic) insulators can be successfully eliminated, or at least dramatically reduced, by the proper chemical optimization of composite rod materials for their resistance to stress corrosion cracking. Index Terms—Brittle fracture, composite (nonceramic polymer) insulators, design, prevention, stress corrosion cracking. Fig. 1. A 500-kV field-failed composite insulator; brittle fracture above the har