Influence of water absorption in flexible epoxy resins on the space charge behaviour

The aim of the current work is to achieve a better understanding of the influence of water uptake in flexible epoxy resins on the space charge dynamics at high electric fields. The space charge behaviour was studied using pulsed electroacoustic (PEA) technique. The samples were prepared from Araldite CY1311, which is a bisphenol-A epoxy resin. This particular resin was chosen because its glass transition is 0°C and hence it is in a flexible state at room temperature. All samples were conditioned in containers with saturated salt solutions or de-ionised water so that various water uptake levels were obtained. It was found that the space charge dynamics was correlated with the amount of absorbed water in the samples and this is consistent with the dielectric measurements made on the same material where ion transport was identified as the main charge transport process from the observed QDC behaviour.