Classification of Salt Fog Aged Silicone Rubber Micro Nanocomposites through PCA Assisted LIBS

The conductive channels formed over the silicone rubber (SR) materials due to atmospheric conditions impose a threat of arcing during the power system network operation. The present study is carried out to detect the level of contamination of insulating materials through laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) and principal component analysis (PCA). The objective is to create a database of LIBS spectra of salt fog aged SR samples under different accelerated ageing cycles. Further, the database of spectra is transferred to new principal plane that has various clusters, and each spectrum of the ageing method aggregates at the respective cluster. Further, based on the occupancy of the LIBS spectrum of unknown material in the vicinity of already existing clusters of known samples, the level of ageing is determined qualitatively.