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Design on Properties of
Porcelain Insulators
Substitution of alumina for silica
improved the mechanical properties
of high-voltage porcelain insulators
but did not have a significant effect on
their electrical properties.
High-strength electrical porcelain is needed by the power industry. This need is met by a specific composition of raw materials, which consists of clays and feldspars. These two raw materials, depending on geological and geophysical characteristics, have various compositions and specifications. Three main constituents of
electrical porcelain bodies (Fig. 1) are clays (as plastic materials), fillers (such as silica and alumina) and
refractories (such as feldspars and talc).1
When an electrical porcelain body that contains silica is fired at high temperatures, the corners of the
quartz particles are dissolved into a feldspar-containing corrosive liquid. In the critical case, these particles are
completely dissolved in the liquid phase. The decrease of solid quartz content in the system leads to remarkable decrease in the mechanical strength of the body.
Thus, firing time and temperature of bodies that contain quartz must be controlled carefully. To achieve
the highest strength, quartz particles must be fine, and the bodies must be fired carefully. Long periods of firing, higher firing temperatures and annealing processes completely vitrify the body. This leads to decreases in
strength.2,3
Another imperfection in the electrical properties of porcelain bodies that contain quartz results from the
difference between thermal expansion coefficients of the quartz grains and the body matrix around them. This
difference results in tensile stress in the quartz grains and compressive stress in the surrounding matrix. When
the temperature changes, these stresses intensify. This leads to development of microcracks that are created
in the grinding step of quartz grains and in the - to -phase transformation of the quartz.
These microcracks act as stress localization centers. Therefore, stress near the cracks is remarkably greater
than the applied stress.4 Decrease of strength under load (when the insulator is suspended) usually results in
abrupt fracture of the insulator because of the growth of these microcracks. This problem can be solved by
decreasing the size or content of quartz grains in the body matrix or by substituting a portion of the quartz
with other refractory materials.4
Decrease in silica grain size leads to higher strength, lower workability and higher firing to drying shrinkage. On the other hand, when the content of fine grains increases, fracture toughness decreases. The only
proper substitution for quartz in industrial production of porcelain insulators is alumina, which can replace a
large portion or total content of quartz.46
9201
Porcelain Insulators
The Experiment
Density (g/cm3)
The maximum firing temperatures selected in this study were 1250, 1300, and
1350C. Bending strength (Table 2), thermal shock resistance, density (Table 2) and
porosity were determined in accordance with
ASTM standards. In each case, several samples were tested. Relative permeability factor
Alumina content (%)
(r) and dielectric loss tangent (tan ) at 60
Hz and 1 MHz were measured. The measureFig. 3 Effect of silica replacement with alumina on density of porcelain ment accuracy for was 0.5% and for tan
r
insulators () 1250, (I) 1300 and () 1350C).
was 3%.
Strength
The effect of silica replacement by alumina on bending strength of electrical porcelain bodies was determined (Fig. 2). In the main composition, the body that contained 25% silica without alumina had the lowest strength. When the alumina content was increased and the silica content decreased, the strength of the
samples increased.
On the other hand, as temperature increased, strength increased because dissolution of quartz (silica) in
system increased. Moreover, when firing temperature increased, alumina was partially dissolved into system,
but the rate of dissolution was much less than that of quartz. When the alumina content in the body and
the firing temperature increased, mullite content (Al2O32SiO2) increased, which acted as an agent for
strength increase. Although alumina content in the body was <8%, the formation of mullite phase was possible at temperature as high as 1340C.
9202
Porcelain Insulators
The microstructures of two samples, one
with 30% alumina and another with 30%
silica, were observed using SEM. The porosity in the silica bodies was studied in particular (Fig. 5).
Water Absorption
Feldspar
Kaolin
Ball clay
Alumina
Silica
number
(wt%)
(wt%)
(wt%)
(wt%)
(wt%)
15
35
25
25
15
35
25
20
15
35
25
10
15
25
15
10
25
20
25
25
Thermal Shock
Thermal shock resistance was determined by heating samples to 100C for 1
h and then immersing them in 0C ice water to be cooled completely. This cycle
was repeated n times.
The number of cycles before crack creation is the criteria for thermal shock
resistance. For samples prepared in this study, n = 30. The literature requires n
20 for electrical ceramics in a similar condition.
Dielectric loss
tangent (103)
24.5
24.7
24.8
25
25.1
25
Dielectric Properties
Dielectric loss tangent was measured at 60 Hz and 20C (Table 3). The dielectric loss tangent was similar for the various bodies (~25 103). The dielectric loss tangent of bodies at 1 MHz decreased to 12 103
that again was similar for all bodies.
The relative permeability factor for all bodies at 60 Hz was 67.
References
1S.I.
Warshaw and R. Seider, Comparison of Strength of Triaxial Porcelains Containing Alumina and Silica, J. Am.
Ceram. Soc., 50, 337 (1967).
2R.S.
3J.E.
Gorour, et al., Outdoor Insulators, Ravi S. Gorur Inc., Ariz., 1999; pp. 215.
Schroeder, Inexpensive High-Strength Electrical Porcelain, Am. Ceram. Soc. Bull., 57, 526 (1978).
4P.
Johnson and W.G. Robinson, Development of Pottery BodiesElectrical Porcelain; presented at the 22nd
Meeting of the Pottery Section (Trentham Gardens, Stoke-on-Trent, U.K., 1947), pp. 23.
5A.M. Bisha, B.H F. Al-Khayat and F.A. Awni, Dielectric and Physicomechanical Properties of Electrical Porcelain
Bodies, Am. Ceram. Soc. Bull., 64, 598 (1985).
6J.
Liebermann, Reliability of Materials for High-Voltage Insulators, Am. Ceram. Soc. Bull., 42 [5] 670 (2000).
7M.
9203
Sintering
Bending
No.
temperature (C)
1250
2.37
1300
2.41
50
1350
2.43
45
strength (MPa)
39
1250
2.43
53
1300
2.46
60
1350
2.48
59
1250
2.48
62
1300
2.51
75
1350
2.55
83
1250
2.53
70
1300
2.58
83
1350
2.61
98
1250
2.59
75
1300
2.66
88
1350
2.70
105
1250
2.65
80
1300
2.70
92
1350
2.74
110
Porosity (%)
Density
(g/cm3)
(a)
(b)