Abstract
Recently, the polymeric insulators have been accepted in several countries for the outdoor high voltage applications. In comparison with the conventional porcelain, polymeric insulators offer various advantages such as light weight, superior vandal resistance and better contamination performance. The outdoor polymeric insulating materials such as silicone rubber, ethylene propylene diene monomer(EPDM), ethylene vinyl acetate(EVA) and epoxy are aged such as silicone rubber, ethylene propylene diene monomer(EPDM), ethylene vinyl acetate(EVA) and epoxy are aged under the various natural environment with the long-term performance in outdoor. In this paper, the effects of UV-under the various natural environment with the long-term performance in outdoor. In this paper, the effects of UV-ray on the surface of silicone rubber were investigated by using the weather-Ometer. The accelerated aging stresses were simulated by UV radiation, high temperature and humidity as well as water spray. These aging characteristics were examined through contact angle measurements, tracking resistance test, FT-IR and SEM/EDS analysis. The experimental results showed that tracking resistance decreases with increase in the UV-ray irradiation period. But the surface of silicone rubber kept hydrophobicity. It is found that the inorganic filler such as)$ Al(OH_3$ improves tracking resistance and the $Tio_2$is very effective in preventing degradation of silicone rubber surface from UV-ray.