MANUFACTURING AND TESTING OF A COMPOSITE INSULATOR FLANGE FOR A HIGH-VOLTAGE APPLICATION

摘要

The distribution of electrical energy is an important part of the infrastructure and composites are already widely used in high voltage applications. For instance, composite insulators represent a new generation of high voltage insulators replacing porcelain. Currently these are equipped with aluminum flanges (end fittings) and it is considered advantageous to replace those with composite flanges. For instance, the insulator can be made shorter with maintained arcing distance and the joint between end fittings and insulator tube can be improved. However, due to the stress state in the flange it appears to be advantageous to improve the through-thickness strength of the composite, as compared to conventional laminated composites. For that reason composite flanges reinforced with 2-D, 3-D and tufted 2-D braids have been tested and the results are discussed within this paper.