Research Projects

In today's world of increasing power demand, it is crucial to ensure secure and always available electricity supplies. Flashover of contaminated insulators in polluted areas is a significant factor affecting the operation of high voltage power transmission lines and substations. These flashovers can result in power outages, waste of time and money, equipment damage, and potentially catastrophic fires. silicone rubber material is commonly used in outdoor insulators due to its improved pollution flashover resistance, but it is prone to aging and limited service life. To address this issue, there is a growing focus on developing self-healing, super-hydrophobic insulating materials for high voltage applications. self-healing materials can restore their pre-damage state when damaged, while super-hydrophobic surfaces maintain a water droplet spherical shape with a contact angle larger than 150°. Polymeric materials with self-healing ability can improve material stability, mechanical abrasion, durability, and water repellency. This work proposes the development of self-healing, super-hydrophobic, spray-type nano-coating for insulation surfaces useful for high voltage applications. Fly ash, a solid waste from thermal power plants and paper industries, can be used for nanosilica synthesis, which can be used as a base material for the synthesis of superhydrophobic, self-healing, spray-type nano-coating for preventing flashover of high voltage insulators. The nano-coating will be tested for its dielectric performance, pollution withstand capabilities, self-healing properties, and maintenance of superhydrophobic behavior even after accelerated aging.