Pengaruh Fly Ash pada Permukaan Isolator Pin Berbahan Polimer Berbasis Finite Element Method

Isolator polimer banyak digunakan dalam beberapa tahun terakhir karena keunggulan yang dimilikinya. Akan tetapi, kelebihan tersebut tidak menghindarkan isolator polimer dari gangguan akibat polutan yang menempel di permukaannya, salah satunya adalah fly ash. Fly ash atau abu terbang merupakan hasil sisa pembakaran batu bara di PLTU yang dapat mengotori isolator. Studi ini mendalami pengaruh polutan fly ash terhadap isolator polimer. Isolator yang digunakan adalah isolator jenis pin berbahan silicone rubber. Simulasi dilakukan menggunakan perangkat lunak berbasis Finite Element Method (FEM) untuk mendapatkan distribusi potensial listrik, medan listrik, dan arus pada isolator. Isolator yang disimulasikan diberikan polutan fly ash yang divariasikan berdasarkan nilai electrical conductivity. Pengujian isolator polimer dilakukan untuk mendapatkan data kebocoran arus pada isolator. Isolator yang diuji diberikan polutan fly ash yang divariasikan berdasarkan nilai Non-Soluble Deposit Density (NSDD). Hasil simulasi menunjukkan bahwa polutan fly ash menyebabkan potensial listrik menurun dan meningkatkan medan listrik pada permukaan isolator. Sedangkan semakin tinggi konduktivitas listrik fly ash menyebabkan arus bocor isolator juga semakin tinggi. Sementara hasil pengujian menunjukkan bahwa semakin besar tegangan yang diberikan pada isolator, semakin besar juga nilai arus bocor pada isolator. Sedangkan semakin tinggi NSDD fly ash, maka semakin tinggi juga arus bocor. Hasil simulasi dapat merepresentasikan hasil pengujian karena keduanya menunjukkan semakin tinggi tingkat polutan fly ash, semakin tinggi juga arus bocor pada isolator walaupun arus bocor hasil simulasi bernilai lebih kecil dibandingkan dengan hasil pengujian. ========================================================================== Polymer insulators have been widely used in recent years because of their advantages. However, these advantages cannot prevent the polymer insulator from being disturbed by pollutants attached to its surface, one of which is fly ash. Fly ash is produced from burning coal in power plants, which can contaminate insulators. This study explored the effect of fly ash pollutants on polymer insulators. The insulator used in this study is a pin-type insulator made of silicone rubber material. Simulations were carried out using using Finite Element Method (FEM) based software to obtain the distribution of electric potential, electric field, and current in the insulator. The simulated insulator is given fly ash pollutant, which is varied based on its electrical conductivity value. Polymer insulator experiments were carried out to obtain current leakage data on the insulator. The tested insulators were given fly ash pollutants, which varied based on the Non-Soluble Deposit Density (NSDD) value. The simulation results show that fly ash pollutant causes the electric potential to decrease and increase the electric field on the surface of the insulator. Meanwhile, the higher the electrical conductivity of fly ash, the higher the insulator leakage current. For comparison, the experimental results show that the greater the voltage applied to the insulator, the greater the value of the leakage current in the insulator. Meanwhile, the higher the fly ash NSDD, the higher the leakage current. The simulation results can represent the experimental results because they show that the higher the pollutant content of fly ash, the higher the leakage current in the insulator even though the leakage current from the simulation results is smaller than the experimental results