International. The research team focuses on improving long-term performance and developing sustainable coatings for high-voltage insulation systems for electric power transmission.
As part of the Qatar University (QU) research mission, a research team from the Center for Advanced Materials (CAM) and the Department of Physics of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences developed and tested coatings for insulators used in electrical transmission lines.
The research team is focused on improving long-term performance and developing sustainable coatings for high-voltage insulation systems for electric power transmission in the State of Qatar and the Gulf region.
QU now has a test unit to evaluate the coating behavior (erosion and tracking) of newly designed coatings, and testing is performed according to industry standards.
Qatar has a pioneering global experience adapting this type of coatings for more than two decades. The use of silicone rubber coating material (SIR) in ceramic insulators has been successfully proposed.
However, in the long term and particularly in Qatar and the Gulf, humidity, high ultraviolet radiation, temperature and lack of rain could lead to temporary loss of hydrophobicity that causes a degradation of coatings.
The degradation could result in the overall infrastructure that supplies critical customers, such as the oil and gas industry, at risk of power outage.
In addition, local materials were used as effective fillers to improve the electrical insulation performance of cladding materials, using eco-friendly materials, supporting Qatar National Vision 2030's environmental sustainability goals.
The work is a collaboration between Texas A&M University, Qatar and the University of Waterloo in Canada, and is funded by Qatar's National Research Fund.
Also participating in the work are Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) and the industrial partner CSL-Canada, developer of this type of coating worldwide, and is the vending company for the Gulf region.
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