Image analysis of hydrophobicity of polymer insulators using PVM

Hydrophobicity of polymeric insulating material surface such as silicone rubber insulator (SIR) was studied by using image data analysis of the sample surface. Using PVM (parallel virtual machine) programming procedure for UNIX operating system, hydrophobicity of polymer surface was evaluated from their surface images of water droplets on the sample surface. The hydrophobic surface images under the spraying of distilled water were taken by CCD camcorder. The video image was divided into each image frame and PVM program analyzed each image data, simultaneously. Image indexes such as size and shape factor, fc, of droplets can be evaluated from each hydrophobic image frame. Then, the distribution of the size and fc were evaluated. Time variation of the hydrophobic indexes during high electric field application was also evaluated, where electric field deformed the droplets.