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Epoxy resin is widely deployed as a high voltage electrical insulation material when compounded with inorganic fillers. However, in the laboratory, the filler prevents visual observation of the long-term degradation known as electrical treeing. To date therefore, much laboratory testing has been conducted on unrepresentative unfilled materials. Here, the impact of micro-sized fillers on the treeing phenomenon in an epoxy system has been explored. Sub-micrometre resolution 3D reconstructions of electrical trees are reported from X-ray computed tomography (XCT) using an advanced ‘pink beam’ synchrotron light source imaging system. The role of filler particles between 1 and 10 μm in size on tree channel propagation is reported. In highly filled materials (30% by weight) a radical change in tree growth behavior is seen, leading to bush tree rather than branch tree growth. The dielectric breakdown time at constant stress was also found to increase as the square root of the filler level. The change in geometry of tree growth may explain the extended life of filled materials in high voltage applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Electrical tree growth is a precursor to dielectric breakdown in high voltage polymeric insulation. Partial discharge (PD) has a close relationship with electrical tree propagation and can be both used to understand the aging process, and as a diagnostic tool for asset management. In this paper it is shown that PD patterns change through the early stages of tree growth, and consideration of these changes gives insight into the processes of tree growth. Here, trees have been grown in epoxy resin in needle-plane geometries with 2 mm gaps, at 15 kV peak AC. The PD phase-resolved pattern can be regarded as a combination of the well-known turtle-like and wing-like PD patterns. As a tree extends its length, a wing-like pattern is seen and the maximum discharge magnitude has an almost linear relationship with the maximum length of the growing branch. Comparison of the energy released by discharges and the vaporization energy needed for tree growth supports the proposal that the wing-like pattern corresponds to PDs responsible for growth in length of the trees. Implications for mechanisms for tree growth are considered. Results suggest that asset managers may be able to use partial discharge analysis to distinguish different stages of tree growth, providing a valuable prognostic tool for optimising high voltage plant management and replacement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Electrical trees are widely grown in laboratories from metallic needle electrodes to enable the degradation process to proceed rapidly at voltages of ∼10 kV AC. Here it is shown that cone-shaped air gaps may form at a needle tip, even when they are not visible optically. Using X-ray imaging techniques, samples with and without air gaps up to 55 μm long have been characterized. The presence of air gaps led to partial discharge (PD) patterns resembling void-discharges. Prior to tree initiation, discharge characteristics evolved with increased voltage increments and increased phase lag behind the applied voltage. These changes to PD characteristics reflect a change in the physical state of the air gap. Although samples with air gaps generally initiated trees quicker than those with no gap, PD activities did not appear to play a decisive role in tree initiation times. However, initial voids were found to have major impact on the subsequent tree growth. In samples with persistent pre-tree air-gap PDs, trees grew larger branchy structures with higher PD magnitudes. In addition, the PDs became more asymmetric between positive and negative half-cycles than occurred in samples with no air gaps. It is shown that understanding the interface between the needle and polymer at a micron scale is critical to interpretation of laboratory tree growth experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]