Study on hydrophobicity recovery and measurement of aged sillicone rubber material

Excellent hydrophobicity and hydrophobicity migration property of silicone rubber material guarantee outstanding pollution resistance and insulation performance of composite insulators in outdoor insulation. Under effect of multiple environmental factors, insulators get aged with increase of service duration. In this paper, hydrophobicity recovery characteristics are revealed by static contact angle method of different kinds of laboratory aged samples, that is, corona aged and salt contaminated HTV(high temperature vulcanized) SR(silicone rubber) samples. The experimental results indicate relationship between hydrophobicity change and ageing status of HTV silicone rubber. At last, influencing factors of static contact angle method and problems existing are discussed when the method is applied to estimate surface condition of salt contaminated samples.