A versatile method to study electrical treeing in polymeric materials

Electrical treeing in high voltage cable insulation has been studied widely as it is one of the major breakdown mechanisms for solid dielectrics subjected to high electrical stresses. The most frequently experimental set-up used to study electrical treeing is utilizing needles to achieve a high divergent field to promote the initiation of electrical trees. In this paper a new type of electrode configuration is described, which will be beneficial when examining electrical treeing in terms of both the capability to follow the course of events in real time and the small amount of insulation material is needed. This new electrode configuration makes use of a thin tungsten wire as electrode to obtain the high divergent electrical stress needed to initiate electrical trees. Multiple electrical trees are at times formed at different points along the wire during the testing, this indicates that the field are homogenous along the wire. This allows for determining the tree initiation field and the rate of tree growth. It is also shown that this electrode configuration is able to distinguish the increased electrical tree inception obtained by the addition of voltage stabilizers.