Pulsed laser cleaning of C contamination on a glass insulator surface

When a pulsed laser cleans a glass insulator, the laser power, scanning speed, and repetition frequency affect the laser-cleaning effect. Herein, we considered glass insulators and their surface contaminations as objects, established a finite element model, analyzed the influence of these parameters on the temperature and stress fields, and explored the optimal cleaning parameters for glass insulator surface contamination. In addition, a laser test platform was constructed to verify the cleaning effect. The results indicated that the difference in the cleaning effect was negligible for lasers at repetition frequencies of 10-75 kHz. When the power increased, the scanning speed decreased and the temperature of the fouled layer increased. When the power was 60-70 W and the scanning speed was 240 mm/s, the equivalent tensile stress did not exceed the tensile strength of the insulator. The ablation reaction can remove the fouling part, and the tensile stress can overcome the adhesion force generated between the dirt and glass insulator to achieve effective cleaning. Experiments confirmed that the surface dirt removal rate of glass insulators can be approximately 99% at 60-70 W (laser power) and 240 mm/s (scanning speed).