Influence of the Electrolyte on Tracking Breakdown of Organic Insulating Materials

This paper describes the influence of the electrolyte on tracking breakdown of organic insulating materials by the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) 112 Method. Two different kinds of electrolyte with surface active and non-surface active agents have been employed to study the influence of wetting agents on tracking breakdown. The effect of surface active agents on tracking breakdown of organic insulating materials with various contact angles is shown. Increasing applied voltage changes the location of the dry band formed on the sample´s surface so that the droplet number to tracking breakdown does not always decrease with increasing applied voltage. For samples with lower contact angle, the violet corona discharge occurs locally across the dry band, tending to approach the surface of the samples. Consequently, the number of droplets to discharge inception and carbon formation are decreased for samples with low contact angle. There is a substantial influence of surface active agents on droplet number to tracking breakdown.