Dielectric response of ionically conducting liquids in thelow-frequency region

The selected dielectric studies are presented of ionically conducting materials (liquid crystal, epoxide resin) in the range of time, 10^-4 to 10⁴ s, or frequency, 10^-4 to 10⁴ Hz. The properties of the space charge at the blocking electrodes were taking into account. Investigations were focused on the time domain dielectric response of the model liquid crystalline pentylcyanobiphenyl. Similar studies were performed also on the epoxide resin Epidian 3. An influence of external parameters like temperature or concentration of impurities were included to interpret the obtained results. This interpretation was established on the principles of the two theoretical models for the space charge polarization     

Polarization and dielectric behavior of ac-aged polyethylene

High field polarization and dielectric relaxation behavior have been used to study the aging mechanisms of crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) aged at constant alternating electrical field stress in a humid environment at room temperature. For this study, the dielectric spectroscopy data in the frequency range of 10^-5 to 10⁶ Hz and their comparative analysis, have been used to provide electrical analog models of the aging. The dielectric data in the frequency range of 10^-5 to 5×10 ^-2 Hz were calculated from the desorption current, whereas bridge measurements provide the data in the frequency range of 10 Hz to 10⁶ Hz. In addition, thermal transient current and thermally stimulated discharge current measurements have been carried out in order to determine the polarization and space charge accumulation in ac aged polyethylene. A correlation has been observed in the behavior of polarization and dielectric relaxation in the present work. The dielectric behavior of the XLPE cable samples and of the LDPE flat samples show a presence of both the inter-cluster (low frequency) charge exchange and the intra-cluster (high frequency) charge motion, the former mechanism becoming more dominant as the aging progresses. For the XLPE cable samples ac aged in a humid environment at room temperature, relaxation peaks obeying the fractional power law have been observed in addition to a quasi-dc process     

Dynamics of prebreakdown phenomena in a uniform field in water

For a breakdown time lag of 10^-7 to 10^-3, both slow subsonic and thin supersonic streamers were found to emanate from a point electrode in deionized water (σ=5×10^-5 S/m). The slow streamer-formed dendrite probably consists of gaseous microbubbles. Relaxation of the slow streamers was studied. The development of fast streamers resulted from kinetic phase transition in the liquid, with subsequent ionization of thin discharge channels. It was shown that heating of water and electrohydrodynamic flow do not affect the prebreakdown phenomena under these conditions. A model has been proposed of an anodic supersonic streamer which is generated by the plasma in the condensed medium     

Carrier mobility in LDPE at high temperature and pressure

Current peaks due to transient SCLC (space charge limited current) were observed in LDPE (low-density polyethylene) at 70°C. From the time at which the current peak occurs, carrier mobilities ranging from 5×10^-15 to 7×10^-14 m²/Vs were obtained. The mobility values obtained for LDPE depend on both applied field and hydrostatic pressure and verify hopping mechanism. The presence of space charge has been confirmed by analyzing discharge currents measurements     

Change of dielectric property with water-treed region

By dividing a water-treed XLPE sheet sample into a non-degraded layer and a water-treed one, relative permittivity ε_r2' and dielectric loss factor ε_r2^" of the water-treed layer have been estimated using an equivalent circuit. The way of changes in ε_r2' and ε_r2^" with the water tree length r estimated by the pulsed electroacoustic method has been discussed based on a Maxwell-Wagner-Sillars (MWS) model. It has been concluded that the MWS model gives a reasonable fit to the experimental data providing that the water conductivity in voids lies between 1×10^-3 S/m and 8×10^-3 S/m, and the minor and major axis ratio of the ellipsoids, to which water-filled voids are compared, lies in the range of 1:20 to 1:50     

Capture of fine particles on charged moving spheres: a newelectrostatic precipitator

It was verified experimentally that electrostatic cleanup of fly ash dust is possible using the scrubbing action of charged copper particles with diameters 10-100 times the size of the dust particles. Results show that target efficiencies in excess of unity (up to 1.8) are possible as a result of the induced charge on the target particles. Power consumption to the precipitator was confirmed to be very small (~5×10^-4 W). Values of the total collection efficiency of 0.65 (65%) were obtained for a precipitator zone length of 1.2 cm (in the direction of air flow) at air velocities of about 3 cm/s. This value decreased with increasing air flow rate. Collection efficiencies up to 0.99 (99%) are projected with a longer test section of at least 5.3 cm in length for low air velocities of about 3 cm/s, an electric field strength of 10.91 kV/cm, and 114.5 μm copper particles     

High-speed imaging of the pulsed-field flashover of an aluminaceramic in vacuum

An intensified high-speed imaging technique was used to observe the optical events associated with the pulsed-field breakdown of an alumina ceramic tube having two concentric planar electrodes metalized onto its end face. HV pulses, typically of 5 kV amplitude (5 kV μs ^-1 rate of rise), were applied to the radial MIM insulator-electrode regime under ultrahigh vacuum (pressure <5×10^-7 Pa), with video recordings made at 1000 frames per second. Images of the observed breakdown phenomena are presented, viewed both along the center axis and also in the plane of the MIM structure. These breakdown images are discussed in relation to plasma jets associated with vacuum arcs and, in particular, on the nature of the ion species within such jets     

Influence of copper vapor contamination on dielectric properties of hot air at 300-3500 K in atmospheric pressure

The influence of copper vapor contamination on the dielectric properties of hot air at atmospheric pressure was numerically predicted in heavy particle temperature range 300-3500 K. Dielectric properties of hot gases are very important for effective design of switching devices and other applications. Copper vapor is known to be injected from the electrodes into the hot gas during arc interruption in a circuit breaker, which may substantially affect the dielectric strength of the hot gas. Analysis of equilibrium composition for a hot air contaminated with copper vapor and computations of Boltzmann equation made it possible to study the dielectric properties of interest. The result indicates that 1.0% copper vapor contamination remarkably increases the effective ionization coefficient /spl alpha/~ and thereby decreases the critical electric field (E/N)/sub cr/ drastically. This arises from a much lower ionization potential of the copper atom.     

Effects of liquid conductivity upon gaseous discharge of droplets

The effect that liquid conductivity has upon gaseous breakdown and conduction between a droplet and a sharp grounded metal point was investigated as a function of the droplet charge level and point-to-droplet gap. A uniform stream of equally spaced 1210 μm droplets was studied in passing the point at 2.05 m/s at a rate of 465/s. The negative droplet charge was set at 24, 40, 55, and 60% of the Rayleigh hydrodynamic instability limit (i.e. 3×10^-10 C) for liquid conductivity values in the 10^-4-10¹ S/m range characterizing electrostatic crop sprays. No significant conductivity effect was found for charges up to the 55% level; the most conductive liquid exhibited a significantly (α<0.10) higher discharge current at the 60% charge level. For close gaps, droplets departed the grounded point region with a reversed charge, indicating they were overneutralized by a positive-ion flux from the grounded point     

Electrical characterization of polymer light-emitting diodes

This paper presents a device model for the current and light generation of polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs). The model is based on experiments carried out on poly(dialkoxy-p-phenylene vinylene) (PPV) devices. It is demonstrated that PLED's are fundamentally different as compared to conventional inorganic LEDs. The hole conduction in PPV is space-charge limited with a low-field mobility of only 5×10^-11 m²/Vs, which originates from the localized nature of the charge carriers. Furthermore, the hole mobility is highly dependent on the electric field and the temperature. The electron conduction in PPV is strongly reduced by the presence of traps. Combining the results of the electron- and hole transport a device model for PLEDs is proposed in which the light generation is due to bimolecular recombination between the injected electrons and holes. It is calculated that the unbalanced electron and hole transport gives rise to a bias dependent efficiency. By comparison with experiment it is found that the bimolecular recombination process is of the Langevin-type, in which the rate-limiting step is the diffusion of electrons and holes toward each other. This is in contrast to conventional semiconductors, in which the bimolecular recombination is governed by the joint density-of-states of electrons and holes and is not limited by charge transport. The occurrence of Langevin recombination explains why the conversion efficiency of current into light of a PLED is temperature independent. The understanding of the device operation of PLED's indicates directions for further improvement of the performance     

1.047-μm Yb:Sr5(PO4)3F energystorage optical amplifier

The pumping and gain properties of Yb³⁺-doped Sr₅ (PO₄)₃F (Yb:S-FAP) are reported. Using a tunable, free running 900-nm Cr:LiSAF oscillator as a pump source for a Yb:S-FAP rod, the saturation fluence for pumping was measured to be 2.2 J/cm² based on either the spatial, temporal, or energy transmission properties of the Yb:S-FAP rod. The emission peak of Yb:S-FAP (1047.5 nm in air) is shown to overlap with that of Nd:YLiF₄ (Nd:YLF) to within 0.1 nm, rendering Yb:S-FAP suitable as an effective power amplifier for Nd:YLF oscillators. The small signal gain, under varying pumping conditions, was measured with a cw Nd:YLF probe laser. These measurements implied emission cross sections of 6.0×10^-20 and 1.5×10^-20 cm ² for π and σ polarized light. Respectively, which fall within the error limits of the previously reported values of 7.3×10^-20 and 1.4×10^-20 cm² for π and σ polarized light, obtained from purely spectroscopic techniques. The effects of radiation trapping on the emission lifetime have been quantified and have been shown to lead to emission lifetimes as long as 1.7 ms, for large optically dense crystals. This is substantially larger than the measured intrinsic lifetime of 1.10 ms. Yb:S-FAP crystal boules up to 25×25×175 mm in size, which were grown for the above experiments and were found to have acceptable loss characteristics (<~1%/cm) and adequately large laser damage thresholds at 1064 nm (~20 J/cm² at 3 ns). Overall, diode-pumped Yb:S-FAP amplifiers are anticipated to offer a viable means of amplifying 1.047-μm light, and may be particularly well suited to applications sensitive to overall laser efficiencies, such as inertial confinement fusion energy applications     

Electrical surface resistance, hydrophobicity and diffusionphenomena in PVC

Polymeric materials are used increasingly in both outdoor and indoor insulation and it has become imperative to find a convenient and a practical method to evaluate the performance of the insulation in situ. The hydrophobicity of a polluted surface particularly in the presence of moisture, determines the level of the leakage current which may result in a flashover and an outage of the power system. However, it is difficult to measure the hydrophobicity of insulators in the field, and therefore the measurement of the electrical surface resistance in situ has been suggested as an alternative method that might give information on the surface state. In the present study, polyvinylchloride (PVC) was used to study the characteristics of the surface resistance, the change of the hydrophobicity and the relationship between both of them in the presence of salt-fog. The dependence of the surface resistance on factors such as the duration of the wetting in salt-fog, the recovery during drying time, the length of the specimens, the level of the applied dc stress used to measure the resistance and the ac stress is reported. The surface free energy per unit area of PVC, during exposure to salt-fog, was calculated using the harmonic-mean method and was found to be consistent with the changes in both the surface resistance and the hydrophobicity of the surface. The surface tension γ_s, increased from 43.1×10^-3 J/m² for the virgin specimen to 76.8×10^-3 J/m² after complete wetting in un-energized salt-fog. The diffusion coefficients of a saline solution having a conductivity of 1 mS/cm into the pvc were found to increase from 2.8×10^-15 m²/s at 74°C to 1.6×10^-14 m² /s at 98°C     

Low-loss behavior of α-PVDF

The exact nature of the polarization processes in low-loss materials is not sufficiently understood and good experimental material is relatively scarce. Dielectric response of α-PVDF covering 8.5 decades of frequency between 10^-2 and 3×10⁶ Hz and a range of temperatures between 103 and 138 K were analyzed to reveal the nature of the dominant polarization process. Correcting for a series resistance and a Debye-like loss process at 50 kHz, the `universal' fractional power law of dielectric response is well maintained, the residual tan δ falls between 0.002 and 0.02 depending on temperature and frequency, with the residual loss process presumed to be due to hopping charge carriers having an activation energy of 0.035 eV. The universal process itself has a relatively high loss but its amplitude is low and this accounts for the low tan δ     

Glass transition of an epoxy resin. A wideband dielectricinvestigation

The dynamics of an epoxy resin, poly(phenyl glycidyl ether-co-formaldehyde), has been investigated in the supercooled and glassy phases by wideband dielectric spectroscopy (10^-2 to 3×10⁹ Hz) and compared with that of the previously investigated epoxy resin, diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A. The temperature evolution of the dynamics of the system is monitored through the characteristic parameters of the relaxations, namely the relaxation times, the relaxation strengths and the shape parameters. Two transition regions are revealed: the glass transition and the split between structural and fast secondary relaxation, where the onset of the structural relaxation is located also     

Stratified gas-liquid two-phase electrohydrodynamics in horizontalpipe flow

Stratified gas-liquid two-phase electrohydrodynamics in pipe flow has been studied experimentally and numerically. Experimental studies were conducted using 1.27 and 1.9×10^-2 m-inner diameter horizontal tubes with air-water two-phase flow for the range of gas surface velocity of 10±²-10 m/s, liquid surface velocity of 10^-2-2×10^-1 m/s, and applied voltage of 0-20 kV. Experimental results are analysed by an area-averaged two-fluid one-dimensional model. The results show that the effect of the applied electric field is significantly influenced by the flow regime transition boundaries between stratified smooth-to-wavy and stratified wavy-to-intermittent flow. However, the time-averaged void fraction was not observed to be significantly influenced by applied electric fields     

Wurtzite GaN-based heterostructures by molecular beam epitaxy

Progress in plasma and reactive molecular beam epitaxy (PMBE and RMBE) grown n- and p-type GaN and GaN-AlGaN-based epitaxial films and optoelectronic devices is reviewed. The growth of GaN by RMBE (PMBE) is achieved by employing ammonia gas (plasma activated nitrogen) as the nitrogen source with resultant growth rates of about 2 μm/h (⩾1 μm/h). The structural, electrical, and optical properties of binary and ternary (Al,Ga)N and (In,Ga)N layers point to high quality. The GaN layers with Mg as the dopant atoms are p-type without any postgrowth treatment, but the hole concentrations are limited to mid 10¹⁷ cm^-3 although reports in the low 10¹⁸ cm^-3 dot the literature. The background carrier concentration, mobility, optical characteristics and ability to dope p-type depend significantly on the substrate temperature and V-III ratio employed, AlGaN-GaN, and GaN-InGaN electroluminescent devices have been realized but lack commercial quality. The AlGaN-GaN photodiodes by RMBE exhibited a maximum zero-bias responsivity of 0.12 A/W at 364 nm, which decreased by more than three orders of magnitude for wavelengths longer than 390 nm. A reverse bias of -10 V raised the responsivity to 0.15 A/W without any significant increase in noise. The noise equivalent noise power near zero bias is below the detection limit of the measurement setup. At a reverse bias of 28 V, the total noise equivalent power is 2.06×10^-11 W     

Pressure estimation in vacuum circuit breakers

The pressure of vacuum switching elements after production is checked normally by Penning or magnetron methods (combined electrical and magnetic field). Vacuum in the range of 10^-1 to 10^-4 Pa can be measured in this way. After assembly into circuit breakers however, these methods are not applicable. HF interruption performance during the make operation was proposed earlier as a possible alternative. Further investigations show that differences in the number of HF prestrike current loops can be found in the pressure range of 10 ^-1 to 10⁵ Pa. Current chopping of dc arcs between 5 and 30 A during the opening operation may be another option for determination of the pressure range by measuring the lifetime of the arc, but the resolution in the vacuum range <10^-1 Pa is too poor     

Diagnostic dielectric spectroscopy methods applied to water-treedcable

Considerable effort has gone into developing polymer formulations and cable designs to minimize failures through water tree growth. However, diagnostic techniques still are required to enable the estimation of the level of damage present within a service cable. This paper reports on progress regarding the application of dielectric spectroscopy to cable diagnostics. A 40 kV, crosslinked polyethylene (XLPE) insulated coaxial cable was used as a model power cable. Sample lengths were immersed in a potassium chloride solution and some of these were subjected to AC electrical stress. After an 8 week duration, a high density of tress was found in the electrically stressed cable. Dielectric spectra have been measured for both sample types in the frequency range of 10^-5 to 10⁵ Hz. Insertion loss measurements were also carried out in the frequency range of 3×10 ⁵ to 3×10⁹ Hz. From both types of measurement, it was possible to distinguish between the cables containing water trees and those that were free from water tree structures. These approaches could therefore be developed in order to provide diagnostics for the detection of water tree damage in electrical power cables     

Electrical breakdown of SF6 at small values of theproduct pd

The breakdown of SF₆ when static and impulse voltages are applied at small values (from 10^-4 bar-mm to 1 bar-mm) of the product pd was investigated. It was found that the prevailing breakdown mechanism up to 8×10^-3 bar-mm was the Townsend mechanism. Between 8×10^-3 and 5.5 bar-mm the Townsend and streamers mechanisms combined, whereas from 5.5 bar-mm on the streamers mechanism took over. The Paschen law was found to hold for the points lying to the right of the minimum when static voltage was applied, whereas edge-type breakdown occurred on the points lying to the left of the minimum. When impulse voltage was applied, the Paschen law was valid only for the points to the right of the 1 bar-mm point. The electrode material affected the static and impulse breakdowns through the values of its work function