Tools development: Manufacturing lightweight composite insulators for electricity distribution and rail systems

在工业、住宅和办公楼以及电力轨道交通中使用的能源的主要部分是 从发电站通过高压电力线网络传输。高 电压线通常由一套陶瓷盘绝缘，这是一种熟悉的棕色釉面瓷器， 附近的电线杆。虽然这种材料本身具有优异的绝缘性能，但这种绝缘体是不稳定的。 是由一个漫长的能源密集型过程制成的。而相同的替换是昂贵的。据报道， 经常成为蓄意破坏的目标脆性绝缘体和金属引脚之间的小空气间隙，由于裂纹或 当电流跨越带有电离空气的间隙时，缺陷会导致可见的放电。这导致 在宽频率范围内的电磁噪声，包括用于Wi-Fi的射频（RF）范围， 手机、互联网、广播和电视传输。电力线附近的RF中断目前在许多情况下是令人讨厌的。 市区智能电网可提高能源利用效率，道路信号和其他城市规划 未来的发展将依赖于射频范围内关键信息传输速率的提高，这将使 射频干扰是严重公共安全问题的候选者。 该提案旨在开发工具，以帮助设计和制造具有竞争力的绝缘子， 安装和更换。这种绝缘体采用复合材料，包括聚合物，其可以 为重量的一小部分提供相同的绝缘，并且可能不太容易破裂， 剥离、故意破坏和射频干扰。我们希望量化和提高能源优势， 与瓷绝缘子相比，这种绝缘子的寿命周期更长。足尺绝缘子的高电压试验 是安全的最后一步然而，材料和设计问题，导致制造可以 通过小规模的实验室类似物进行更系统、快速和廉价的研究。这里 我们试图评估用于电力线绝缘体开发的这种按比例缩小的系统。

A major fraction of the energy used in industry, residential and office buildings, and electric rail transit, is transmitted from electric power generating stations over a network of high-voltage power lines. The high voltage lines are well-insulated, usually by a set of ceramic disks, a familiar sight of brown glazed porcelain on neighbourhood utility poles. While this material itself has excellent insulating properties, such insulators are made by a long, energy-intensive process. and identical replacements are costly. They are reported to be frequent targets of vandalism. Small air gaps between the brittle insulator and metal pins, due to cracks or imperfections can lead to visible discharge when electricity jumps across gaps with ionized air. This causes electromagnetic noise in a wide range of frequencies, including the radio-frequency (RF) range used for Wi-Fi, cellphone, internet, radio and TV transmission. RF-disruption near power lines is currently a nuisance in many urban areas. Smart grids for more efficient energy usage, as well as roadway signalling and other city planning for the future rely on increasing rates of critical information transmission in the RF-range, which would make RF-disruption a candidate for serious public safety problems. This proposal seeks to develop tools to help in the design and manufacture of competitive insulators for new installations and replacements. Such insulators employ composite materials, including polymers, which can provide the same insulation for a fraction of the weight, and are likely to be less susceptible to cracks, debonding, vandalism, and RF-disruption. We would like to quantify and improve the energy advantage in the life-cycle of such insulators, compared to porcelain insulators. The high-voltage testing of full-scale insulators is a necessary final step for safety. However, materials and design questions leading to manufacture can be more systematically, quickly and inexpensively studied by small-scale experimental laboratory analogues. Here we seek to evaluate such a scaled-down system for power line insulator development.