Filamentary electromechanical breakdown

Author

Fothergill, J.C.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Eng., Leicester Univ., UK

Volume

26

Issue

6

fYear

1991

fDate

12/1/1991 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1124

Lastpage

1129

Abstract

A breakdown mechanism is proposed in which a filamentary-shaped crack propagates through a dielectric, releasing both electrostatic energy and electromechanical strain energy stored in the material due to the applied electric field. The mechanism predicts a breakdown strength which is proportional to the fourth root of Young´s modulus and a time to breakdown comparable with that taken for a sound wave to cross the dielectric (≈0.1 μs in 25 μm thick polyethene films). Analysis of previously unexplained results of M. Hikita et al. (1985) on thin films of polyethylene yields good agreement with the proposed mechanism and a filament radius which is comparable to the gross morphological features of the dielectric

Keywords

electric breakdown of solids; electric strength; polymer films; 25 micron; Young´s modulus; applied electric field; breakdown mechanism; breakdown strength; electromechanical strain energy; electrostatic energy; filamentary-shaped crack; gross morphological features; polyethene films; time to breakdown; Capacitive sensors; Current measurement; Dielectric breakdown; Dielectric thin films; Electric breakdown; Electrodes; Electrostatics; Plastic films; Polyethylene; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electrical Insulation, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9367

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/14.108149

Filename

108149