Water drop corona has been identified by many authors as a major cause of deterioration of silicone rubber high voltage insulation but at this stage there have been no thorough studies made of this phenomenon. In this paper fundamental observations are presented of electrical discharges from water drops, movement of drops, and drop coalescence in the presence of 50 Hz alternating electric fields. Measurements are made both with water drops on metal electrodes and with water drops on the surface of silicone rubber insulation. Comparisons are made of current pulses and atomic emission spectra from previous work by the authors on dry point-plane discharges to provide information about the main types of active species which may cause insulator surface degradation. Visual images of wet electrodes show how water drops can play a part in encouraging flashover. The first reproducible visual images of water drop corona at the triple junction of water air and rubber insulation are presented. The current measurements were captured with a digital oscilloscope sampling at 200 MHz. The time constant of the measuring circuitry was approximately 14 nanoseconds.
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